All parties must come clean on their policies for national security
Three times in recent weeks, terrorist outrages have struck at the heart of our country. In Saturday night’s attack, which took place a minute’s walk away from a major counter-terrorism police centre, the heroism of ordinary citizens, some of whom tried to protect others at great risk to themselves, and of the emergency services’ first responders, including police faced with what appeared to be suicide vests, is remarkable.
As the Prime Minister has said: “Enough is enough.” However, we must not allow stiff upper lip to mean that we carry on simply as before. Of course, life, including the election, must go on, and we cannot pretend that terrorism is not an election issue. It is time that the major parties came clean about their true and honest assessment and intentions.
We have heard already from politicians about community policing, and this may be important
– but not to this issue. The assertion that cuts to beat police officers have diminished the ability to fight terrorism is untrue, as the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick, made clear yesterday. I have watched closely the resourcing of MI5, counterterrorism policing units and others in the years since 9/11 and I believe Labour, Coalition and Tory governments have provided the resources needed.
Instead, we need to focus on national security. What is it? It is nothing more nor less than the rights of the whole population to go about their daily lives without the risk of barbaric bombing and butchery. That means we must ensure that the law is adequate, and that it is used proportionately to need.
Last Friday I attended a hustings meeting at which the shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, spoke for the Labour Party. Incoherent and incomprehensible might be too generous a description of her performance. The notion that she could lead the Home Office should leave us all in frozen apprehension.
Mr Corbyn appears to believe, with extreme naivety, that it is possible to negotiate with organisations which inspire the belief that it is desirable to bomb and knife women and children on a night out. This is extremely disappointing. I have known successive Labour home secretaries who understood the issue and acted on the merits.
Labour introduced Control Orders in 2005: they worked, were held lawful in human rights terms, and were scrutinised automatically and carefully by the High Court. I believe they may well have saved dozens of lives. Their application to people such as the Manchester and Borough Market perpetrators is self-evident.
They were removed for mistaken political reasons. The Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, has said that their replacement, Tpims (terrorism prevention and investigation measures) with a relocation requirement, is sufficient. However, since 2011 these have barely been used. She should tell us now that the use of these powers is under immediate review, and that if necessary the greater powers under control orders will be restored.
Mrs May’s promised Commission on Extremism should be the first priority of whichever government is elected, and should start work immediately after the election. In addition, the chanting of cliché-ridden criticism of the Prevent policy should be replaced by the chorus of support from all communities for making an effective policy even better, and funded fully.
These are the views I hope to hear from all the parties with a chance of governing.