Yesterday we witnessed a man deliberately driving along a footpath mowing people down, crashed the car, ran towards parliament and stabbing a police officer. As I write this 4 people have been killed, 4 families have lost someone and many more affected in this incident. Innocent people going about their daily business.
Praise, Thanks, Thoughts and Prayers go out the family and friends of Keith Palmer and the others who died yesterday. And also to all Emergency services, members of the public and Tobias Elwood who all selflessly stayed on the front line and tried to help the injured.
Earlier I was listening girl Brendan Cox, who lost his wife in a terror attack last summer, whilst I can't directly quote him, his point was we see people in isolation often characterised by their profession but everyone has a back story they are a father mother sister brother etc. what I would say about profession and isolation there of is that some people go to work to just earn money others go to work not only for a wage but because they believe in what they do.
I going to quickly refer to the tweet I was in copy yesterday.
that's the story?I have now had more information about this tweet and I have clearly Miss understood, the point was about attempts to create s local story and not as I'd assumed. please scroll to the end for update. Police officer and 2 others dead but mp locked in is the story!!!
I suppose it depends what eyes you are looking through. I've included above my narrative on what i saw through the media, but as for the story, I saw something bigger than whats suggested in the tweet. so I'm going to split this into 2 parts.
Part 1 an individual caused a number of incidents which triggered a Blue Light response, Their role includes protection of all and our way of life, cordons were put in place and then the area cleared. The area being cleared included a building with over 1000 people in some were emergency services some were administrators, visitors, researchers, MP's, Business people, managers even school children so in light of the situation just outside the building the last thing emergency services need is all these people spilling out into danger or endangering those already caught up in the incident and so lock down the building. Its not only safer for them its also a potentially large problem that can be dealt with later. I fully believe the emergency services did the right thing.
Part 2 Yes that group of people included MP's. Now in the UK we have a hatred of MP's and a feeling that these people aren't worthy of protection. MP's work really hard to try and improve the Uk or manage particular problems, despite common belief these people work very long hours and put in a great deal of effort. I know Tamworth MP not only increased the number of hours he worked but also took a pay cut when leaving his job to be an MP.
Not one politician that I know is there to cause any harm or distress to anyone they are there for the right reasons the issues become clouded when it comes to priorities and the public purse.
Despite the above, we have the right to elect and MP to represent our needs and so I do believe they should be protected as should the public and international visitors who walk around London and enjoy the freedom our democracy and services provide for us.
The Uk is no stranger to Terrorism
Wikipedia has a great page listing attacks since 1970
I remember as many of us do some of the troubles we have had, I was in Brighton when the Grand Hotel was bombed, I visited London the week after the 7/7 bombings, i remember reading about the soldiers being shot at Lichfield station.
This week we heard of the death of Martin McGuiness a few years a go we saw tributes following the death of Nelson Mandela and now we are focused on the group who attempt to hide behind Islam. for me it doesn't matter what the cause, it doesn't matter whether its instructed, lone wolf or someone just pushed over the edge. Anyone who creates fear, panic and ultimately injury and death is acting in a terrorist manner, they are terrorising other people.
The above named people moved away from violence and began to negotiate, it was only at that stage that they made progress, (I know there is a whole debate as to who called who terrorists with these)
It has been said a number times but its still true we must not give in to terrorism.
And we must not punish the innocent in the way that terrorist are trying to, we must not let ourselves be consumed by the hatred.
An Irish man I know had his vehicle vandalised repeatedly in the 1974's following the Birmingham pub bombings, it had nothing to do with him. The Muslim community talking their children to school today should not be judged because this guy in London may have been inspired by a terrorist group using their religion.
Again, a massive thank you to all who protect us and they way we live in the UK.
The tweet I referenced at the top was about the localisation of a story and the reference to the local MP not as I interpreted it. I do have to agree with the tweet in regards to the fact that this terrible incident is terrible regardless of whether it has a local angle.
Our emergency services are amazing people and they do us proud, all of them. Having had cause to need all of them first hand I could never say a bad word about them. Thank God they are there and choose to do the job they do or we would all be worse off.
ReplyDeleteAs for MP's and indeed Councillors, we all get tarred with the same brush. None of us need to do what we do, I'm not asking for sympathy for any of them especially even more so after what's happened. What I wish people would do is grow up and stop bleating about our politicians and that they don't deserve this that or the other. People criticise them until they need their help, some people expect them to move mountains or perhaps just as hard the whole government machine just to suit their own aims and needs and get upset and angry when they can't. Everyone in this country has a job to do, those that protect us to those that entertain us, those that feed us and those that represent us. We need to grow up as a society and realise everyone has a part to play and noone should criticise another who is actively playing a role in our society. Like you say, our MP did indeed take a pay cut to be where he is now just to be in the firing line of hate and vitriol not just from people who threaten our democracy but from our own people too. The police take a bashing from a lot of people too, until incidents like this show the real story. Both in a public role, very differently carried out for different reasons. It's a bigger picture and a lot of people in this country just couldn't give a damn about that and never will. So long as they're OK hey?