Yesterday's shocking events in London must remind us just how vulnerable we are to such outrages. In a free society, it is impossible to prevent such things from happening; the best that can be hoped for is that they are few and far between.
That said, in recent years and in order to lessen the chances of such events, our society has become less free and more controlled. We are surrounded by vast numbers of laws, rules and regulations; access to the buildings of state - the Houses of Parliament, the courts and many other places - is heavily guarded, and our police are increasingly armed with an array of weaponry. Are these the marks of a 'Free Society' ?
At the same time, we have allowed, and even encouraged, hordes of immigrants from around the globe to come here without any insistence that they adopt the ways and customs of our society. Rather than encouraging assimilation into our society, we have allowed the creation of what amount to mini-states populated by immigrants, and their descendants, who owe no loyalty nor allegiance to our country, but who have established their own almost separate communities. Many of these people never learn to speak English and continue to act as if they were in their former countries, following their own imported laws, ways and religions, regardless of ours.
In such communities, extremism is born. Religious fanatics feed on the beliefs and prejudices of impressionable young minds, corrupting them and turning them into instruments of terrorism. The
result is atrocities like those seen in London yesterday, France, Belgium, Germany and many other places over the years. The response is to be evermore vigilant, to have more and more control and less and less freedom for us all, except the immigrant communities which continue to be a law unto themselves.
Will those who rule over us never learn ? The real answer to terrorism is assimilation, not separation. When immigrants assimilate, they became part of the broader society and no longer have any reason to rebel against it; as long as they remain separate, they can easily see themselves as put upon, disliked and threatened, and indeed, it is very easy for the rest of society to see them as something alien and to be feared. Is it any wonder that some of their number fall prey to evil fanatics ?
Yesterday one man in a car caused havoc and mayhem in London simply by driving across Westminster Bridge and towards the Houses of Parliament. Anyone could have done the same at any time, but this fanatic chose to drive on and off the pavement, mowing down pedestrians at random. Two have died and many more have been injured. After this, the man ran into the grounds of the Houses of Parliament and killed a policeman, before he, himself, was shot and killed. The police now say that this was a terrorist incident and the assumption is that it was inspired by Islamic extremism.
It is not time for a reassessment of our priorities and the ways in which our nation is run ?
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