The Reader: We must be vigilant against terror plots

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Armed Police officers stand close to the scene of the suspected terror attack which took place on August 14, 2018.
NurPhoto via Getty Images
26 November 2018
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Thirty-six lives were lost and many more injured in the terrorist attacks which took place in the UK in 2017, that we covered in the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament report last week.

It is our duty as parliamentarians to help ensure the Government provides our security services with the tools to stop such horrendous attacks from succeeding. The agencies have successfully foiled 17 plots since March last year. However, the scale of the threat facing the UK, and the methods deployed by those seeking to do us harm, mean that our agencies cannot foil every attack.

This is not used as an excuse by the agencies — the committee recognises the determination with which they approach this truly difficult work.
Dominic Grieve MP
Chair, Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee

EDITOR'S REPLY

Dear Dominic

I THOUGHT your Intelligence and Security Committee last week struck the right balance between acknowledging the difficult task the security services face and at the same time holding them to account for operational failures.

Reading in your report about the problems of keeping track of potential terrorists did make me question whether, as a country, we will have to revisit the debate about ID cards. An identity system could also help answer the public’s concerns about keeping a grip on immigration without at the same time destroying the open society we have all benefited from. You and I were part of an opposition that helped defeat the then Labour government’s plan to introduce ID cards. I wonder if we were right?

George Osborne, Editor

Little Mix are not your average girls

.I understand why Ellen E Jones has come to the defence of Little Mix, suggesting their naked photos are aimed at promoting body confidence [“You missed the point of Little Mix’s Strip, Piers. It’s about confidence, which too many young girls lack,” November 22].

But how does showing the naked bodies of pretty girls with full faces of make-up, professionally styled hair and perfectly toned bodies help the confidence of an “average” girl? Personally, looking at their naked bodies makes me feel a whole lot worse about mine.
Jess Bowers

Cromwell Road plan is no solution

Your report on Friday on the appalling Cromwell Road development being called in by Mayor Sadiq Khan suggests he is determined to continue the campaign of his predecessors to wreck the skyline of London by pushing us towards 500 tower blocks.

It seems that in the misleading name of “affordable housing” targets, Khan is determined to litter London with decidedly unaffordable housing for foreigners to park their capital, while the number of rough sleepers continues to rise.
Sam Dunkley

A wicked lady who’s worth remembering

WELL done for promoting Dame Judi Dench’s campaign for more female blue plaques [November 21].

The gorgeous Margaret Lockwood was also famous as the sexy masked highway robber in The Wicked Lady who has a fling with her rival James Mason. Decades later, she inspired the female secret resistance fighter, the Night Watchman, in the recent BBC series Robin Hood.

Not bad going for a dead movie star, and a British one at that.
Stephanie Calman​

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