One of the points of a terrorist attack is to grind everything to a halt as we proceed to enact the same routine of shock and think-pieces. This has always been the case, but in recent years it's occurred time and time again within the western world.
All us bloggers must now cast aside whatever weekly post they were writing in order to say something about the disaster unfolding. It doesn't matter if it's unbelievably offensive, bland, or just incorrect. It just needs to be something.
I've talked about this before with the Paris attacks. The inevitable paranoia and xenophobia that results in civil rights being stripped from us. For a passive observer, the aftermath is worse than the initial shock as everyone floods to social media. Even the spike of blind patriotism sickens me. "London is the greatest city in the world." "Yes, pray for all of us." "We are all united together over an attack that occurred just before Brexit - the most nationally dividing event in our lifetime."
But throughout all this, there was one standout story the world seems grabbed by. The news media loves this. It's positive and uplifting in a time of unbelievable despair. As police officer Keith Palmer lay dying after a kitchen knife was plunged into his body, Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood ran onto the scene and attempted to administer mouth-to-mouth. He can be seen amongst the police and ambulance crew trying to save Palmer's life.
I'm certain Ellwood will never forget this day. You can see in the picture above someone else's blood on his face. That detail alone would be enough to cause post-traumatic stress for many, many years. Couple that with attempting to save the life of a stabbed police officer in the site of a terrorist attack that's killed several and injured tens. Chaos. Sirens. Yelling. Bodies. All captured in high definition and broadcast live direct to your living room.
Around a day prior, across the other side of the world, a scene of equal if greater horror was playing. On the outskirts of Raqqa, Syria, a school being used as a refugee centre was destroyed in an airstrike. At least 33 people were dead. 50 families remain unaccounted for. These were civilians. They too were innocent victims of barbarism. A vile, callous attack carried out...by US coalition forces.
We, the UK, are (at least in part) responsible for this attack. This is part of our endless series of airstrikes that was voted for in 2015. One of the MP's who voted for this...was Tobias Ellwood.
Far from making the London attack seem trivial, to me this seems more horrific. It's not hard to take last Wednesday's scene and multiply it by six. Horror's from overseas comes to our doorstep, and it's just a fraction of what others must face daily. Even with terrorism, the west is still privileged.
Also; this is not an attack against Ellwood. His actions were undoubtedly heroic, as he ran to help a dying man despite the horror of the scene and the rest of parliament either evacuating or sealing themselves inside. In fact, the whole reason why I'm writing this is because I hope Ellwood's action will change something. I'm not entirely sure what, but something.
UK politicians, particularly Conservative MP's, are generally regarded as being detached from society. The vast majority of politicians are rich. Not tycoon-rich, but rich enough to afford investments, multiple houses, multiple cars, and private services. Politicians constantly have to make decisions that significantly affect peoples lives - lives completely different to their own. To make it worse, these decisions often need to made quickly without proper consultation and with the 'whip' system breathing down their necks. Ellwood has never rebelled against his party, but those who do will never go beyond the backbench.
The only real way to change this system would be to reshape parliament into an 'expert-led' system. The Education Secretary would need to actually have been in education, and be surrounded with a full team of education specialists. I actually applied for a job in the Ministry of Education as a civil servant. (I obviously never heard back because...well, just look at this blog.) The job didn't require any knowledge whatsoever regarding education. They just needed someone who could write nice letters and emails. They wanted someone to look pretty whilst saying nothing.
Which is why Ellwood's actions on the 22nd stand out so much. It was an act not just of selflessness but instinct. Ellwood helped a dying man because of a compulsion we all feel when faced with another person's clear suffering. The Conservatives deport refugees, let people drown in the Mediterranean sea, and are complicit in the slaughter of innocents abroad because to them they're just some foreigners. It's racism, pure and simple. These people talk funny and look weird, therefore we don't mind if they die so long as it's not our problem.
I hope that Ellwood realises there was no difference between the man he tried to save and the 33 who died in Raqqa. They too were humans breathing their last, victims of a cruelty they cannot fathom. I hope every politician knows that the suffering they saw just outside their workplace is a fraction of what they're responsible for abroad. I hope every politician opened their eyes to the real world. The world of seemingly eternal terror.
No government policy can stop a man swerving his car onto the pavement. But it's the government who has a hand in the Syrian War, the Yemen Famine, and the Refugee Crisis. Government policy can stop that. Mr Ellwood; you couldn't have prevented last Wednesday's attack. But you can prevent millions like it.
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