Editorial Comment
The apparent terrorism-related attack in Westminster yesterday is a further reminder of the need both for vigilance and good intelligence in the face of this continuing threat. We do not yet know the full story behind the events outside the Palace of Westminster. What we did see was the courage of police officers prepared to confront the alleged attacker when they cannot have known the incident was over. The car could have contained a bomb or an armed assailant.
It is a sad reality that devising security measures to obviate attacks like this is difficult when all that is needed is a car or a kitchen knife to cause injury or death. The real preventative measures have to be taken before any perpetrator is able to mount a deadly assault. It is not yet established whether the arrested driver was known to the security service and the police; even if he was, keeping tabs on all the radicalised suspects on their radar is nigh on impossible. This is why it is essential that family members and others in their communities who suspect the activities of an individual need to inform the authorities and not hide behind any misplaced loyalties.
It is, at least, one crumb of comfort that most of the attacks in recent years, while murderous, have been low-tech, involving vehicles and knives rather than bombs and guns. One exception was the Manchester Arena bombing, which also saw the greatest loss of life, where a sophisticated explosive device was used. It is still not known for sure, at least not publicly, who helped Salman Abedi, the suicide bomber, to construct it, though his brother based in Libya is suspected.
These people do not pose an existential threat to the state but they are a menace to life and limb for those unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But we cannot be complacent. We do not know, for instance, how many of the hundreds of radicalised Islamists who fought with Isil and have returned to the UK are planning attacks here. Some may be trained in bombmaking and able to lay their hands on weapons. We rely upon the authorities to know where they are. But there remains a culture of secrecy in this country that makes it hard to be sure that they do.
The security service has thwarted many plots that could have caused far greater carnage than anything seen since July 2005 and for that we must be grateful. But they know that it is the one that succeeds by which they are judged, fairly or not.