‘We must come together to take on and defeat our enemies’
THERESA MAY signalled a new approach to tackling terrorism when she declared in Downing St that in the wake of the London killings “enough is enough”.
The Tory leader claimed there was “far too much tolerance of extremism” in the UK and put major internet companies under pressure to ensure there are no safe spaces for terrorists.
She signalled there will be difficult and “embarrassing” conversations ahead.
Here are the eight key messages in her speech: Things need to change “We cannot and must not pretend that things can continue as they are. Things need to change and they need to change in four important ways.”
Britain has been too tolerant of extremism in the UK
“While we have made significant progress in recent years, there is – to be frank – far too much tolerance of extremism in our country. So we need to become far more robust in identifying it and stamping it out across the public sector and across society.
“That will require some difficult, and often embarrassing, conversations. But the whole of our country needs to come together to take on this extremism, and we need to live our lives not in a series of separated, segregated communities, but as one truly United Kingdom.”
We are witnessing copycat terrorism
“In terms of their planning and execution, the recent attacks are not connected but we believe we are experiencing a new trend in the threat we face. As terrorism breeds terrorism and perpetrators are inspired to attack, not only on the basis of carefully constructed plots after years of planning and training, and not even as lone attackers radicalised online, but by copying one another and often using the crudest of means of attack.”
We need to see action from big internet companies
“[We] cannot allow this ideology the safe space it needs to breed. Yet that is precisely what the internet, and the big companies that provide internet-based services, provide.
“We need to work with allied democratic governments to reach international agreements that regulate cyberspace to prevent the spread of extremist and terrorism planning. And we need to do everything we can at home to reduce the risks of extremism online.”
Britain’s counter-terrorism strategy will be reviewed and prison sentences may increase
“[As] the nature of the threat we face becomes more complex, more fragmented, more hidden, especially online, the strategy needs to keep up. So in light of what we are learning about the changing threat, we need to review Britain’s counterterrorism strategy to make sure the police and security services have all the powers they need.
“And if we need to increase the length of custodial sentences for terrorist-related offences – even apparently less serious offences – that is what we will do.”
Military intervention alone won’t deal with Islamic extremism
“It will only be defeated when we turn people’s minds away from this violence and make them understand that our values – pluralistic British values – are superior to anything offered by the preachers and supporters of hate.”
Five plots have been stopped since March
“This is, as we all know, the third terrorist attack Britain has experienced in the last three months. In March a similar attack took place just around the corner on Westminster Bridge.
“Two weeks ago the Manchester Arena was attacked by a suicide bomber and now London has been struck once more. And at the same time the security and intelligence agencies and police have disrupted five credible plots since the Westminster attack in March.”
The general election will go ahead on Thursday
“As a mark of respect, two political parties have suspended our national campaigns for today. But violence can never be allowed to disrupt the democratic process, so those campaigns will resume in full tomorrow and the General Election will go ahead as planned on Thursday.
“As a country, our response must be as it has always been when we have been confronted by violence.
“We must come together, we must pull together, and united we will take on and defeat our enemies.”