Extremism is not Britain’s true face

I KNOW the pain and suffering that acts of terrorism and extremism can inflict.

What gave me strength in the weeks and months after Jo was murdered was seeing how the nation responded.

Just as it is reacting now after the carnage at Westminster.

I saw the best of Britain while cycling through London yesterday. People going about their business, getting on with their lives, refusing to be beaten.

The police around Parliament doing their job with professionalism but with courtesy too.

The nurses, doctors and NHS support staff going into work hoping for a better day, but ready for the worst as they always are.

Among them Muslims as well as Christians, Jews, Hindus and people of other religions or none. It is what they do that matters, not where they come from or what faith they might have.

It is those people who are the true face of our country, not the extremists.

The man who brought death to Westminster doesn’t represent Muslims any more than the man who killed Jo represents people from Yorkshire.

So I try not to think about the one act of cowardice, but the hundreds of acts of kindness and bravery.

The terrorists will never win as long as we come together with our neighbours and communities, and push hatred to the extremes where it belongs.