Attack not turning point in our history

OUR MEMORIES WILL FADE IN TIME

Candle lights on Westminster Bridge, London on the day after Wednesday’s terror attack I WAS pretty annoyed when I watched a TV news report about the terrorist attack in London and heard a reporter claim that a new page in history had been turned.

It doesn’t mark the start of a new era of British history. It won’t change much at all.

There will be an inquiry into the security arrangements at Westminster and whether they could be improved. But the incident doesn’t pose any fundamental questions about our society.

It was just an idiot with a car and a couple of knives.

In recent years, there’s been a tendency to look for meaning in terrorist attacks and to see them as historic events.

It wasn’t always like this. The IRA were simply regarded as criminals when they planted bombs and murdered people.

Perhaps that’s because the IRA’s goal, to get Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom, made sense. They were wrong – Northern Ireland’s status should only change if that’s what the people of Northern Ireland want – but you could see what they were trying to achieve.

So-called Islamist killers have a range of nonsensical motivations.

Currently, it seems they’re trying to impose a dictatorship based on rape, slavery and the glorification of guns and vio- lence. It’s like a teenage boy’s fantasy inspired by the artwork on a heavy metal CD.

Of course, we don’t know for sure what inspired the latest incident, because the killer doesn’t appear to have told anyone.

So perhaps it’s natural to ask ourselves what he wanted. I’m not sure I care.

Why would this person’s opinions be more important than the views of his next door neighbour who didn’t kill anyone?

In any case, I suspect the question of why he did it is really one for a psychiatrist.

Those who were murdered must not be forgotten and they won’t be.

Others suffered injuries which will stay with them for life.

But beyond offering our sympathy and support, there’s not a lot we can do, or should do.

It’s possible to commit murder. You could do it.

Police and the security services do foil terrorist plots, and 269 people have been convicted of Islamist terrorism offences or killed as suicide bombers in the UK between 1998 and 2015. But there’s no way of keeping us all safe all the time.

Memories of this horrific incident will fade just as, frankly, memories of the 2005 London bombs have faded. And that’s no bad thing.