March 22nd represented
the first anniversary of the Brussels terror attacks but was just another
nondescript day until later in the afternoon when terrorism reared its ugly
head in London. This blog will give some thoughts on this latest attack against
our nation.
The first point to note was that
the city selected for the attack has come through a city wide fire, plague, war
and terror in its long history. It is fair to say that a city that faced
squadrons of Messerschmitt bombers dropping bombs on innocent civilians was not
going to crumple at the force of a deluded moron in a Hyundai. More recently,
the capital city faced a sustained programme of terror from the IRA, a range of
attacks that also extended to other towns and cities throughout England and
Northern Ireland, many of these atrocities killed many people but did nothing
to weaken the resolve of the UK. Some of the more enduring images of yesterday’s
event was the response of ordinary people coming to the aid of those that were
injured, demonstrating the ‘blitz spirit’ is alive and well.
The second key factor in the
Westminster attack was the brilliant response of the emergency services, the
Metropolitan Police neutralised the terrorist quickly and secured the crime
scene. The London Ambulance Service also mobilised their full range of
resources within moments. Terrorist attack drills are periodically carried out
and their world class response to a real attack was befitting of world class
emergency services in a major international city. Local hospitals also
activated their response plans, ensuring that staff were quickly mobilised to
where they were most needed and there were also reports of medical staff
helping people at the scene.
The third key point is that we are
very lucky to have the key security intelligence resource of GCHQ. This
organisation come under attack from liberal pressure groups about snooping on
citizens, but has been at the source of foiling many potential terrorist
campaigns over the years, saving many lives. The most serious Islamic terrorist
attack came with the 7th July 2005 suicide bombings on the London
underground and buses. Although this was a serious attack, the death toll from
this was nowhere near the levels of attacks in places such as Madrid, Nice, Paris
and Bali, far less the infamous 9/11 attacks in the USA. It is quite a
testament to the work of GCHQ, that since 2005, London has had only the
cowardly slaughter of an unarmed, off-duty soldier and yesterday’s attack on a
number of ordinary citizens and an unarmed policeman, since that fateful day in 2005.
Naturally, one death or injury
from terrorism is too many and statistics will not be a comfort to those
affected by these sort of attacks but we can take a great deal of pride in
organisations like GCHQ who are patrolling the dark web and putting into place
counter-terrorism strategies to keep us safe, in conjunction with the security
services and armed forces. There will no doubt be more low-level attacks in
future but the UK Government must ensure that sufficient funding is provided
for our intelligence community to continue to foil terrorist plots and remove
these scum from our society.
There will no doubt be much
rejoicing from Islamic State over the attack and sympathisers complaining about
Foreign Policy. This despicable type of justification for criminal acts carries
no weight as teachers, police officers and tourists going about their everyday
business aren’t responsible for shaping Foreign Policy. Before accusing the
West of killing Muslims, perhaps Islamic State should look inwards and be
questioning why they have only succeeded in being the largest oppressor of
ordinary Muslims in any country that their corrosive organisation has
infiltrated.
London can be considered capital
of the world with people of every nation having made the city their home, it
can truly be considered one of the most free cities on earth where people of
different faiths and ethnic groups mix. The fact that the Islamic State
movement was reduced to taking such a pathetic cheap shot in London and only
succeeded in uniting the people rather than driving them apart shows that they
have already lost. On the day after the attack. London responded by continuing life
as normal, Westminster Bridge reopened and Parliament reconvened, highlighting
the abject failure of terrorists who try to change our way of life and
interfere with our cherished democratic freedoms. There have also been reports of over £200K
being raised for the family of the police officer who died and over £10K raised
for the Air Ambulance, which was at the scene very quickly.
Following the assassination of Pakistani
politician Benazir Bhutto in 2007, her son was interviewed for television and
repeated his mother’s mantra that democracy is the best revenge. As we reflect
on the sad events in London, this sentiment is more relevant than ever. During
times like these, the old WW2 slogan reminding us to keep calm and carry on is
the best response.
