Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

PM avoids knee-jerk response to Woolwich attack

It goes without saying that when it comes to serious national tragedies, David Cameron is the right man to give a statement from Downing Street. His response today to the Woolwich killing underlined how good he is at producing sensitive and thoughtful speeches which, though written swiftly, avoid any knee-jerk reaction.

He should be commended for taking special care to insist that yesterday’s attack ‘was also a betrayal of Islam an of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country’ and that the fault for the killing ‘lies solely and purely with the sickening individuals who carried out this appalling attack’. His statement contained a long section on why there was nothing in Islam that justified this atrocity. The Cobra meeting earlier this morning discussed not only community cohesion but also the ‘strength and unity of response from Muslim community leaders’.

The murder suspects yesterday told the brave Ingrid Loyau-Kennett who confronted them that ‘we want to start a war in London tonight’.

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