Don’t let terrorism change us, learn lessons from each attack

With the naming of the victims of the Westminster terror attacks their scale becomes more human, no longer principally a symbolic affront to our democratic institutions but the tragic loss of someone’s sibling, parent or child...

However, there are questions to be asked about what happened. Indeed, there is a gloomily familiar aftermath to any terrorist attack. Once the identity of the assailant is discovered he usually turns out to have been known to the police and security services, as was the case here with Khalid Masood, a 52-year-old Muslim born in Kent and living in Birmingham...

Masood must have expected to be shot when he ran into New Palace Yard, though again questions are being asked over security at the entrance. Why, for instance, were Carriage Gates left open?

Understandably, some people say that all Westminster guards should be armed – but do we really want the seat of democracy to resemble a fortress?

There are arguments that the police should be routinely armed rather than just a number of specialist officers. This would be a mistake: we cannot allow terrorism to determine our policing policies unless a change in traditions becomes absolutely unavoidable. It hasn’t yet...

The ISIS’ warped, death-cult ideology is disseminated through the Internet to impressionable, often disturbed, individuals who rationalise what they do by reference to this lunatic creed...

We will learn more about Masood in the coming days and there will be demands for additional measures to stop him and his kind before they kill. But do we need any more counter-terror laws? Since the attacks on London in 2005 there has been legislation intended to combat hate speech and extremist rabble-rousing. Rather than bring forward more laws we need to use those we already possess. As Mrs May said, we must never waver in the face of terrorism. But we must always learn lessons after each incident to reduce the threat it poses.