A 250-word article for the Petersfield Post, Clanfield Post, Horndean Post and Bordon Post answering the question ‘What action would you/your party propose to take to prevent more terror attacks like the one in Manchester from happening again?’:
The atrocity in Manchester was horrifying and very distressing. One of the few points of light has been the failure of ISIS’s strategy of using this kind of attack to polarise the community in Manchester and nationally: they’ve almost completely failed to do this. It has also been reassuring how quickly the security services seem to have wound up the network responsible for the attack – enabling the terror threat level to be reduced from critical to severe.
The critical question remaining is how it could have been prevented. People who knew Salman Abedi reported that he was a risk on several occasions but he still slipped through the net.
While we need to wait for the results of Police and MI5’s review of this failure, one reason for Liberal Democrat concern with the brutal Conservative cuts to policing budgets – including here in Hampshire – is that this kind of problem might emerge. That’s one reason our manifesto pledges to increase community policing by giving an additional £300m a year to local police forces.
We also need to continue to collaborate internationally in fighting terrorism. Theresa May’s plans for an ultra-hard Brexit must not be allowed to jeopardise this. Finally, we must also resist the temptation to use this to justify indiscriminate snooping powers or to weaken encryption. The priority must be strong community relations to identify people who are potential risks – and then focused efforts – via surveillance or, if necessary, through TPIMs to disrupt any potential attacks before they happen.
