In a particular case, which I can't go into for legal reasons, that is progressing through the system now, I'm impressed by how seriously they're taking it. I'm not a member of the scientific community, but my belief is that things have improved dramatically because the perpetrators of violence against academics, scientists and others now realise that the consequences will be very unpleasant indeed if they are caught and found guilty. A lot of these people are misguided, they are not prepared for the idea that if they attack laboratories or scientists' homes or whatever they could serve very long jail sentences.

MB: That's certainly right, in that particular case. Of course the police in Spain or Northern Ireland would say in no circumstances should you pay protection money and all the rest of it, but because the terrorism is in a place where everybody's extended family lives, you are just going to quietly pay because they'll start killing every member of your family if they have to. Whatever is the official line, something else will be happening, for the sake of a quiet life - the emphasis on "life".

These big corporations taking on huge risk insurance for things like the eventuality of kidnapping or ransoming, they'd just essentially prefer to pay up. And it's my understanding that in the case of the Somali pirates I was writing about for Standpoint [November], most people would pay up as well. Because these are very unstable places, with, shall we say, not the best trained armed forces or policemen in the world, one of the biggest risks to the hostages in a lot of the cases I've looked at is that, other than the point when people are kidnapped, it's when the authorities mount a rescue operation they're likely to catch a bullet.

That's just a fact of life in those parts of the world. So the freeing of Ingrid Betancourt after a very long period as a hostage of FARC was not really typical. The Colombians mounted an incredibly complicated and sophisticated rescue operation. Companies have to consult professional security firms, of which there are a lot made up of former intelligence or military personnel, who would strengthen their security protection. They would probably advise them to use non-foreign workers in key places to take out at least one of the key claims that the terrorists would be making. The insurance even covers media management of the relatives of the hostages, lest they screw up negotiations. So you can do that, and where it's feasible you can try and rescue people - but with all those caveats about what might happen to the hostages.