Rest in peace, the sons and daughters who were murdered Monday night in Manchester, England. I pray their families will one day find whatever peace may be possible in the face of such unimaginable bereavement.
How do we avenge these latest cowardly murders by an enemy as implacable to us as any in our history? How do we combat the murderous fanatics in our midst?
Many were born here while thousands of others entered through our open-doors, open-arms borders. Despite being nurtured by the United Kingdom or offered free access to it and its way of life, these killers and their associates and backers hate us so much they seek to destroy us from within. Their families and communities are complicit by their silence and the secrecy they maintain around the barbaric activities of terrorists who murder our people. Much needs to be done to eradicate this evil.
But there is one simple step which we can take now: We must bring back the death penalty.
This is the first time I have called for this. For decades I have shifted in both directions: “Taking any life is wrong,” versus “It’s right to execute certain types of killers, but what about miscarriages of justice?” The risks of miscarriages of justice have now been largely overcome by the huge advances in DNA testing to a point of near-infallibility.
Many will argue that I’m calling for revenge killings, motivated by hatred. Others will argue that I’m inhumane, that we live in a civilised society. Then there will be those who say that the death penalty is not a deterrent, that the warped perpetrators want in any case to die as martyrs.
None of the above arguments stand up. Not now. We are at war and war crimes and terror cannot be given any quarter or allowed any glimpse of victory. These people are not deranged psychopaths, they are indoctrinated into an ideological belief that involves all-out war against us.
I’m not wringing my hands trying to find answers like the BBC is doing today. I’m a politician, it’s my job to come up with answers.
Today, we should announce that the death penalty will be brought back for terrorist crimes. Let’s hear no more from the human rights industry, the civil libertarians, and those who seek to take the devil’s dollar or pound to give succour to our enemies.
Ignore the liberal left, those extreme-left IRA apologists, those that support Hammas and Hezbollah, who think the Israelis are the bad guys. They are our enemies. We have to protect our culture, our identity, our children and our way of life.
Across Europe, our borders have been opened and we have let the jihadists in. German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed 1.2 million migrants – doubtless there will be thousands of jihadists in their midst. Others sneak into Europe via the Balkans, waved on through by police who do not care as their destination is the U.K.
We have 181 convicted Jihadis in our jails, 181 too many. We have another 400 who have slipped back into the country after training with the Islamic State. We have another 3,000 “on watch.”
My critics today know no bounds of stupidity. “How can you hang a suicide bomber? He’s dead! Ha, gotcha.” Lee Rigby, a British Army Soldier, was murdered four years ago Monday by two men who said they were avenging Muslim killings by the British armed forces. His killers languish in a U.K. jail infecting others with their hate. They should be sent to death.
We need to drag jihadists out of their lairs and isolate them. Name and shame their families, for they are complicit. Prevention now has to take precedent over cure.
Against this background, it is beyond parody and belief that Brussels is still trying to impose migrant quotas on other E.U. states. We must resist immediately and thank our lucky stars that Brexit is on the way.
Politicians are rightly lining up to pay tribute to the proud city of Manchester and its people. But now they must show the backbone needed to take the first step to prevent further outrages – the immediate imposition of the death penalty for terrorists and those who back them.
Janice Atkinson is an independent member of the European Parliament, representing South East England.
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