What a way for the election campaign to end. With just four days to go I cannot imagine anyone wanting a final frenzied day of campaigning on Wednesday.
The mad men behind this latest attack, for that is what they are, have demonstrated how difficult it is for the police and security services to predict and control such incidents. Three men get a large van, arm themselves with knives and make vests of beer or baked bean cans. How do you stop them? The awful answer is you don't without the kind of positive diplomacy Jeremy Corbyn talks about.
For now, Thursday will be the day when we show mad men everywhere what we think of them by going to vote.
The afterwards will have to wait until Friday.
In the meantime I expect to cry a little as individual stories of those killed and injured emerge. Everyday I still think of the young teenage couple killed in Manchester, their love for one another and his lifetime mission to keep her supplied with chocolate. Of such things happy lives are made and, right now, such lives lost matter more than any election campaign.
I am sure all our thoughts are with the victims of last night's attack, their loved ones, families and friends.
Things will get better. Without hope there is nothing.
A FOOTNOTE:
I wrote the above at 9am after waking up to news of what had happened on London Bridge and at nearby Borough Market.
Campaigning is going to resume this evening. The Labour Party nationally and locally, I am sure, have made their decisions after a lot of careful thought. Over the next few days the media will be picking up on individual stories from yesterday's attack. The conflict between lives lost and changed forever will not sit easily alongside politicians clamouring for attention. We shall see what happens soon enough, but I fear politics will be the loser.
No comments:
Post a Comment