Carnage at Westminster

I watched and listened with horror at the events unravelling at Westminster Bridge and the Palace of Westminster on Wednesday. I just happened to have my computer on and was watching the live BBC News.

Looking back over the events 48 hours later certain things stand out. Firstly the enormous courage of an unarmed policeman in trying to prevent the attack. Over recent years our policemen have come in for some criticism from various factions of the community - particularly those who demand more "freedom" ' but to get back to PC Keith Palmer he was employed in "doing his job" which in this instance involved standing up to a knife wielding madman. Unfortunately he paid for it with his life.

Tobias Ellwood, the MP who went to his aid showed tremendous courage too. He wasn't to know that other assassins weren't in the vicinity.

Mary Creagh the MP for Wakefield also showed courage and common sense. She left the safety of Portcullis House and headed for Westminster Tube Station to the control room to warn that members of the public could be at risk if they remained in the station. (I imagine she recalled the carnage when bombs went off in the underground.) As a result the station was evacuated and then closed.

There was a magnificent response from all the emergency services - special mention has to be made of the nurses who dashed to the scene on Westminster Bridge from nearby St Thomas' Hospital with trolley loads of equipment, the paramedics and first responders too.

The inevitable questions were posed by the media - could anything more have been done to prevent this kind of attack? - surely anyone with a grain of common sense could work out the answer to that question! Everything was done that could possibly have been done. Armed police are always on patrol. The secret service spends a great deal of time and effort in tracking suspects. Short of tracking every suspect person and constructing a bomb proof barrier and parking tanks  outside Parliament there really is no way a lone attacker can be spotted before he launches his murderous attempt.

I then got round to thinking about the mindset of Khalid Masood. How could he possibly expect to succeed with all the necessary protection in place? All he has managed to do is cause untold grief and misery to many innocent families, If, as has been claimed, this was "inspired" by IS, the sooner their adherents are hunted down and disposed of, the better.