Suspected terrorist attacks in London – because the Tories have made us vulnerable?
People near London Bridge and in Vauxhall have been victims of what may be terror attacks.
Around 10pm on Saturday (June 3), a white van was driven into pedestrians on London Bridge. It seems occupants then got out and started stabbing people indiscriminately on the streets in and around the neighbouring borough market. Another incident took place in Vauxhall.
At least one person is said to have died.
This Writer’s thoughts are with the victims and their families, and I hope the emergency services are able to capture those responsible for these despicable acts of violence.
But I wonder what is behind it.
After the Manchester attack, much was made of the fact that Theresa May and her fellow Conservatives have progressively weakened the police and our intelligence services, making it increasingly less likely that we could have early warning of a terror attack, let alone defend against it.
https://twitter.com/AJScattergood/status/867497144420380673
My understanding is that nobody in the police or intelligence services had any advance warning of the attacks in London.
Mrs May’s response to the Manchester attack was to put nearly 1,000 soldiers on our streets – defending Buckingham Palace, Downing Street, and foreign embassies. She did nothing at all to improve the safety of ordinary British citizens.
At the time, ordinary people complained:
https://twitter.com/EmuHp/status/867344168678551553
This tweet was particularly prophetic, in the light of the London incidents:
Armed soldiers on London's streets feels very unBritish. None patrolling in Manchester. And fear no deterrent against suicide bombers
— Kevin Maguire (@Kevin_Maguire) May 24, 2017
And now ordinary British citizens have again paid the price for her government’s short-sightedness. The attackers may not have been suicide bombers, but good people have been harmed nonetheless.
The worst of it is, with four days to go before the general election, she’ll probably declare another state of emergency and a hold-up in campaigning – probably in the hope that she’ll be able to make more of a good impression than she did after Manchester. We know she tried to use that tragedy for political ends; it seems likely she’ll do the same with this.
It seems to me that the fact of the matter is this:
Theresa May and her government created the circumstances that have allowed these attacks. The sooner they are banished from government, the better.
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Campaigning should not be halted, as it just helps the party that is ahead in the polls. I am in favour of arresting and interning all seriously suspected jihadists until the election is over for everyone’s safety.
I’m not in favour of arresting and interning large numbers of people who have not been shown to have done anything wrong. In Ireland, all that achieved was to cause more people to have sympathy for the IRA’s cause.
What I want to know is why the threat level was not at critical – “attack imminent” – yesterday, when, as we now know, an attack was imminent. Same as just before Manchester. What is the point of these threat levels?
They hadn’t received any intelligence to suggest an attack was imminent because the Tories have cut police numbers to the bone and this has hampered investigations.
You’ve hit the nail right on the head, and that is exactly what has happened too many times here in the USA, highway departments, police departments, you name it. Damn Republicans are OBSESSED with taking from all the ordinary folks, AND from the government and from infrastructures, and letting those at the top HAVE IT ALL.
May seems to have deliberately engineered recent incidents to further her interests just as Thatcher deliberately reduced naval coverage of the Falklands in order to tempt Galtieri to invade. Just like now. Thatcher was facing a General Election and her support waning so she wanted to show Argentina who was boss. Sadly it took the lives about 200 Britsh squaddies and over 1,000 Argenentians to win Thatcher’s second term. May is using British civilian casualties for the same purpose.
Here is the USA the same problem seems to always be relevant, Republicans (or Tories) [I spell that right?] have a way with wars. May is the FIRST PART OF MAYHEM!
Campaigning should not stop, the Tories have been helped these people by selling the weapons training and money now its coming back to bit May’s friends the Saudis are feeding these people
Damn Tories are terror
There is no doubt in my mind that the drastic reduction in policing and other public services at all levels has not helped or prevented these attacks and the amount of time needed to bring the correct forcing up to speed will take a long time. Meanwhile those poor police units will be stretched to breaking trying to cover the shortfalls. This situation replicates what the NHS is sufferring and all still struggling to provide additional efforts to cover the casualty lists from these attacks. The right hon May and her cabal have a lot to answer for and exactly like their bailed out banker mates they had a gamble and lost. They gambled their manic reductions in all the prime services would not have any impact basing their gamble on a quiet life and passive populaton of non protest sheeple letting them get away with it…… The Cons not having an ounce of common sense they are now faced with a reality check having been told by their own services specialists not to go ahead with the reductions they cannot cope with extraordinary circumstances which are unlikely to go away. Do you want to be led by these thoughtless greedy numpties (nicer word than what I was thinking). Vote them out this week let someone else have a review of the situation they have had far to long to get it right and failed misreably.
Campaigning should not stop that plays into the hands of the idiots perpetrating these murders/attempted murders. Apparently the reaction time was 8 minutes, and just what else could the Police do to prevent this attack? Place a watch on everyone who hires a van? How do you stop anyone from driving, we all know there are unqualified and disqualified drivers on the road every day who are not actually trying to kill people deliberately. The killers were all shot dead, probably because they had fake bombs strapped to them, maybe this should be the automatic response to anyone involved in this crazy murderous behaviour.
The reaction time was terrific, and I don’t think anybody can criticise the police for shooting the perpetrators dead – their responsibility is public safety.
The problem is the lack of foreknowledge. Intelligence has been cut to the marrow and we seem to be paying the price for it.
Maybe there was no warning to be had and therefore nothing to be done, but without the infrastructure to collect information, we’ll never know.
‘Things must change’, May said this morning. After the Tories’ previously inept attempt to eliminate encryption from the Internet, I fear whatever further restrictions on freedom/liberty May will try to impose on us which in the end likely to be self-defeating and run the risk of entrapping possibly thoughtless but otherwise innocent people. Too many people have been injured by mischance of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and appearing to be carrying a weapon. New kneejerk legislation must not be imposed by MPs or SIs without a thoroughly independent public scrutiny of any risks involved. Our Freedoms have already been significantly eroded: we must not let government do the terrorists’ work for them.
According to May the solution is Intolerance, Violence, Fear, Division, Suspicion and Wholesale abuse of people’s freedom.
Surely this is mirroring the current terrorist tactics?
Perhaps her Saudi visit wasn’t such a good idea after all !