The way we describe the world is changing. The old labels - East and West; Left and Right; market and state – are increasingly irrelevant in a fluid, globalised world. The future faultlines in politics, both nationally and internationally, will not be ones of geography or ideology or wealth. They will be divisions between those societies that are open and those that are closed. The horrific attack in France this week was an attempt to close down our societies, to close down minds, and to close down free expression. It was an assault not just on journalists and cartoonists but on the values of free speech, public dispute and openness which those professions embody. It was an attack on the very heart of an open, liberal society.