We won’t be defeated by extremists

NOT again. I expect almost everyone had the same reaction as me when news came through of the London Bridge attack on Saturday night.

There was disbelief that it could have happened again so soon after Manchester last month and the atrocity on Westminster Bridge in March. It helps nobody to rush to judgment, even if you happen to be the President of the United States.

Again, I had to explain to my kids

that there were more bad men like the one who took their mummy from them. And that more families will now be heartbroken for no reason at all.

It is no consolation that it could have been so much worse. If the police had not responded with such speed and determination, many more parents and children would be grieving today.

I am not in any position to say whether police have the resources and manpower they need. But I do know that they deserve our support in trying to track down and root out the violent extremists who threaten us all. We can help the police as well as giving what little comfort we can to the victims when we come together to drive out the extremists.

Whether they are Islamist terrorists, who have no real understanding of Islam, or violent nationalists, who have no understanding of our nation.

Of course, they can hurt us. They have just shown that again.

But they cannot defeat us.