On Saturday night, a couple of Islamic State terrorists drove a van through a crowd of people on London Bridge and then, when their layers of victims got so dense that it ground their vehicle to a halt, they hopped out, wearing phony explosives vests to scare people (as if they weren’t scared enough already), and went on a barbaric stabbing spree. They killed seven people and left dozens more seriously injured.
The London Bridge attack came just days after another Islamic State terrorist attack in Manchester, whereby a suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosives device in the MEN Arena at an Ariana Grande concert shortly after the singer left the stage. The bomber killed 22 people, including an eight-year-old girl, and the terrorist threat in the UK was raised.
Now, it’s been raised again, with yet another terrorist attack (although enough is enough, these guys should realise) expected imminently. It’s becoming a very serious political issue in the UK, with intelligence agency MI5 stepping in following the London Bridge attack-sized straw that broke the camel’s back (poor camel).
And it’s worth mentioning that our general election is just two days away, with these recent terrorist attacks making counter-Terrorism measures and foreign policies a top priority for a lot of voters in their choice of party.
MI5 will review how the London Bridge attack was handled
MI5, the UK’s domestic counter-intelligence and security agency, is being brought in by current British Prime Minister Theresa May, who on Thursday could either be ousted in favour of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn or re-elected for another abysmal five years, to take a look at how the London Bridge attack was handled.
See, British intelligence knew of one of the London Bridge terrorists and knew of his ties to Islamic State extremism, and he still managed to carry out the horrifying attack.
This has led to some concerns and also a bit of outrage because it means the whole atrocious ordeal was completely avoidable (although it may have required internment camps, which are a bit iffy). Of these concerns, May has said she can “absolutely recognise” them and where people are coming from by having those concerns. Doesn’t bring any of the victims back, though.
MI5 will determine what lessons can be learned
The review by MI5 will be carried out to determine whether or not there are lessons that can be learned from the London Bridge terrorist attack that could be applied in the future to prevent similar attacks. That’s easy – when you know someone’s got extremist inclinations and ties to the Islamic State, do something about them.
Arrest them, keep an eye on them, whatever you’ve got to do to stop them driving a van through people and then stabbing them. Seriously. Just do it.
So, anyway, May has been taking a lot of flak of late thanks to British security services knowing about one of the perpetrators and doing nothing until it was too late. The Home Office, the police, and UK intelligence agencies all had information regarding the London Bridge attackers and did nothing with it. Boris Johnson (who, despite his silly hair, often talks a lot of sense) said MI5 had some explaining to do following the attack they failed to prevent, despite its looming presence being right in front of their eyes.
May is trying to refocus on Brexit on campaign trail
Still campaigning for the imminent general election, May tried to avoid questions about the London Bridge terrorist attack and repeatedly tried to divert back to talking about the things she’s comfortable talking about: the Brexit process that will be so, so great with her in charge (sarcasm, in case you didn’t infer) and the “strong and stable” leadership that she will bring to England, despite not doing so for the past year that she’s already been in charge of the country.