Nowhere else is a more iconic symbol of democratic life than the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, the oldest Parliament anywhere in the world. On Wednesday, it endured a cheap and cowardly assault that led to the death of four innocent people plus the attacker, which brought the total toll to five. One was an unarmed policeman dedicated to keeping parliamentary life safe. Many were injured, including schoolchildren from France.
I was one of many in Parliament as it happened, having lunch with an MP. Loud male shouting alerted us to a serious incident. We had no idea what. Was it a bomb alert, a fire, a fight? Then everyone started hiding, some in a cupboard, others under tables or sofas. There were young children beside us on a school visit. We realized that some people were starting to move. A heavily armed policeman started asking people to leave the large dining room. We still had no idea what was going on. Some were in tears. Everyone was corralled into the center of the palace, away from the windows. Many MPs were still locked in the chamber.
Parliament went into lockdown for the next six hours, nobody was allowed in or out except streams of armed security. Politicians and Cabinet members waited together with members of the public, cooks, waiters, researchers and schoolchildren on educational visits. The police performed magnificently, not least as it was in the knowledge that one of their members had been killed and others injured. It seemed an age at first but the reality was that a huge parliamentary estate at the core of British power was, within a very short time, under total control and tight protection.
For 25 years, I have wandered into this this magnificent palace — from the days when one could simply walk in with no checks or security to the era of passes, barricades and airport-style screening.
British people pride themselves on their resilience and stoicism in the face of such threats and there is no sign that this is changing. In 2005, after the July 7 attacks, people walked to work the following day.
Chris Doyle
However, the fundamental principle of access to our elected politicians will not be thwarted by cowardly idiots.
The police have confirmed that they are treating this as a terrorist incident but whoever did this, whatever their reason, failed. Parliament resumed its normal functions the day after the attack. Britain has seen far worse and so has Parliament, going back to 1605 when Catholic plotters had 36 barrels of gunpowder ready to ignite under the palace. In 1979, Airey Neave, an MP, was killed by a car bomb planted by the Irish National Liberation Army as he drove out of Parliament. There were the IRA attacks of the 1970s and 1980s and the 2005 London bombings saw 52 killed. Only last June, MP Jo Cox was killed by a man with links to the far-right.
British people pride themselves on their resilience and stoicism in the face of such threats and there is no sign that this is changing. In 2005, after the July 7 attacks, people walked to work the following day.
There was a grim inevitability about such an attack. The UK threat level has been at “severe” for some time, with 10 attacks thwarted in the last two years. Perhaps the surprising thing was that — given the horrors in Brussels, Paris, Berlin and Nice — London had not been hit before like this. Some claimed the government had hyped the threat. This attack proves how false this was. The fear must be that this could be the opening salvo in a series of attacks. This was a low-tech attack, weaponizing a car and using a knife. The killer used a knife possibly because Britain’s gun laws are so tough, though no doubt Donald Trump would disagree. Of great concern is the fact that he was within meters of huge numbers of MPs en route to voting and was close to the area which the prime minister drives through to reach Parliament.
It has been confirmed that the attack was carried out by a lone assailant and this presents an even tougher challenge for those involved in the investigation. However, research indicates a lone wolf is rarely alone. Already arrests are being made.
Most pundits suspect that this was a Daesh or Al-Qaeda-inspired attack. It is possible, given their previous attempts and repeated threats and the fact that Britain is participating in the bombing of Daesh targets in both Syria and Iraq.
Perhaps the most dangerous repercussion could be if the attack exacerbates already existing divisions in Britain and creates deeper fissures between communities. In 2005, Spanish friends were amazed at how the bombings did not cause intercommunal tensions as had happened after the Madrid attacks. Hate is no solution to the threat. Far-right extremists could not wait five minutes to exploit the opportunity. The notorious Tommy Robinson, former leader of the English Defense League, rushed to Westminster to spew his racist anti-Islamic venom.
Perhaps most important of all is that when the dust settles, people should remember that despite all the horror in Westminster, this is but a small fraction of the almost daily terror experienced by people in Syria or Iraq, for example, and that Muslims are still far and away the biggest victims of Al-Qaeda and Daesh. That is one reaction that can knock back this extremist menace.
The other was very clear the morning after the attack — Londoners made their way into work for it is business as usual in the capital.
— Chris Doyle is the director of the London-based Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU). He has worked with the council since 1993 after graduating with a first class honors degree in Arabic and Islamic studies at Exeter University. He has organized and accompanied numerous British parliamentary delegations to Arab countries. He tweets @Doylech.