If George Orwell and Laurie Lee were to return from the Spanish Civil War today, they would be arrested under Section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006. If convicted of fighting abroad with a “political, ideological, religious or racial motive”, a charge they would find hard to contest, they would face a maximum sentence of life in prison(1). That they were fighting to defend an elected government against a fascist rebellion would have no bearing on the case. They would go down as terrorists.