In recent days parliament has been recalled on a Saturday to debate the renationalisation of the British steel industry. Then, after a month-long strike by binmen in Birmingham, army planners have been called in to help address the issue of large amounts of refuse piling up in the city.
Absent a major ideological split on the right, it is hard to see how much more reminiscent of the 1970s Britain could become. I don’t however want to join the legions of people who are carping. Rather, I should like to suggest an answer to some of these things.
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The news at the weekend that Hashem Abedi, the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi, had allegedly assaulted and stabbed prison officers at HMP Frankland also presents an example of a problem that needs to be addressed rather than simply wailed about. It is alleged that Abedi had thrown hot cooking oil over the officers and then stabbed them with ‘homemade weapons’. This poses many questions. One is how a jihadist in prison could get access to boiling cooking oil; the other is why in a British prison someone can feel so at home that they are able to make knives out of cooking trays.
This is one of those occasions when all political sides assume their natural positions. Many people wondered what had gone wrong with security arrangements in British prisons. Others pondered why Abedi was in a prison with so many other jihadists. A few wondered why this country had to pay to house the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber at all.
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