The Manchester Arena suicide bombing and UK General Election campaign

By Paul Gordon Just over a week ago, on Monday, May 22, the Manchester Arena was subject to the deadliest terrorist attack on British soil since the tragic events of the 7/7 London bombings in July 2005.

What should have been a night of joy and happiness for thousands of Ariana Grande concert-goers turned out to be a scene of macabre and mindless violence conscientiously planned and carried out to cause maximum damage and suffering to what were an audience of mostly adolescents and children.

As we have seen too many times recently, it takes only one mad, cruel, warped person to cause limitless suffering. Twenty-two innocent people were massacred and 116 injured. As of May 29, according to the NHS, 52 people were still being treated in hospital, including 19 in a critical condition. Ten people under 20 were amongst the dead, the youngest an eightyear-old girl. This is the sort of cruel world we live in.

This sick attack was carried out by a 22-year-old suicide bomber called Salman Abedi, born in Manchester in 1994 to Libyan refugee parents who had escaped Gaddafi'´s Libya and been given the chance to start a new life in Britain.

Abedi was a student at Burnage Academy for Boys from 2009-11 and at Salford University from 2014-16 when he dropped out and stopped attending classes.

We have been told by the British press these days that the UK security services had been informed up to five times about the dangerous views and strange behaviour of Abedi.

The first of these was reportedly in 2012 by a community worker who had called a hotline to warn the authorities about Abedi as a potential threat. In addition, members of the Libyan diaspora in Britain had supposedly warned authorities for years about the dangerous Islamist radicalisation happening in the Manchester area.

In total, Abedi was allegedly reported to the authorities about his extremist views by as many as five people. And there are reports that even the FBI warned MI5 in January of this year that Abedi formed part of a dangerous North African ISIS cell based in the English northwest and which was planning an attack in the UK.

What went wrong? At first sight it looks like a long list of mistakes made by the police, the security services and the government of the day. The Police Federation chair of England and Wales, Steve White, has said that over the six-yearperiod from 2010-16 around 20,000 police jobs were cut and police budgets have been slashed by around 4% every year. This period was when Theresa May was Home Secretary in David Cameron's government.

Under these very difficult circumstances how can we expect the police to carry out their duties properly? Another terrorist attack like this one cannot be allowed to happen again! The police and the security services must have the funding they need. Let's hope that the recently announced inquiry into the way MI5 dealt with the repeated warnings from the public is both objective and efficient, leaving nothing brushed under the carpet. Some very tough questions have to be asked about what went wrong! Our security and lives depend upon it.

This Sunday will see Ariana Grande and a host of other famous pop stars stage a charity concert at Old Trafford cricket ground in Manchester to raise money for those affected by the Arena suicide bombing. This is a very brave and nice gesture by Ariana Grande and other pop stars in memory of the victims, to help the families and to publicly stand up to terrorism.

Thanks must be given here to the Spanish government and public authorities who publicly showed great solidarity with our country by lowering all institutional flags to half-mast and by staging a one minute silence at the doors of public institutions around the entire country the day after the terrible attack. This is a gesture which clearly shows that Spain shares our sorrow as a close friend and ally and which should be much appreciated. Both of our countries have been the victims of terrorism for many years.

The Manchester Arena terror attack brought about the immediate suspension of the UK General Election campaign for three days. Just like the horrible murder last June of Labour MP Joe Cox a few days before the EU referendum, nobody knows what impact, if any, the Manchester attack might have on people's voting on June 8.

Certainly the General Election campaign has been influenced by the attack in different ways. Security, terrorism and immigration have become a major political issue. The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, whilst publicly condemning the suicide bombing, gave a controversial speech in which he stated that British foreign policy in the Middle East, and in particular in Syria and Iraq, must be re-examined as he said that some intelligence experts have linked British military participation in foreign wars as having caused an increased terrorist threat to Britain.

Whether there is any truth to this claim or not remains to be seen. However, one thing is crystal clear: terrorism of any nature is totally unjustified!

The UKIP leader, Paul Nuttal, on the other hand has even gone so far as to publicly suggest that terror suspects should be locked up without trial. According to the UK security services there are supposedly somewhere in the region of 23,000 terror suspects presently at large in Britain. An awesome figure. Something appropriate has to be done now by the authorities to prevent another attack before it's too late!

Jeremy Corbyn's admission on the TV election programme “The Battle for Number 10” on Monday, May 29 that he would open talks with the SNP about another Scottish independence referendum hit the headlines as, once again, he has publicly contradicted the official position of the Scottish Labour Party which is supposedly steadfastly against any second independence referendum as unwanted and unnecessary.

Corbyn put his foot in it again when questioned by the presenter of Woman's Hour on BBC Radio Four about the cost of the Labour Party's plan for free childcare for two year olds. He said he didnt´ know the figures and had to try and look for the answer on his iPad. Very unprofessional!

Theresa May didn't stand up too well either on the Monday night TV election programme hosted by Jeremy Paxman when she found it hard to answer questions about Brexit and chronic underfunding of the NHS, schools and social care for elderly people.

According to a YouGov poll published on Tuesday, May 30, a hung parliament is projected. The Conservatives have seen their double-digit lead slashed over the past week and now their present small overall majority is in jeopardy of evaporating.

The poll predicted the Conservatives would be 16 seats short of the 326 needed for an overall majority in the House of Commons.

It looks as if the election result is not so clear after all. Let's see what happens and hope that whoever is the next Prime Minister that they do the best for Britain's national interest, which in this moment is primarily to deal with the terrorist threat and sort out the Brexit mess.

Before I forget, I would encourage all those British expats who have the right to vote in this General Election to do so and take the opportunity to publicly remind our political leaders that all British expats who live and work abroad - estimates of the World Bank are between four and five million - should have the right to vote and be able to choose the government which will represent them as British nationals.