On the last day before Parliament broke for the Easter recess I joined the Home Affairs Select committee visiting the Counter-terrorism Internet Referral Unit at Scotland Yard. We had a fascinating briefing about what our police and intelligence services are doing to track and disrupt suspects sympathetic to DAESH, incredibly as we know, this includes school age children as well.
We then met some of the very dedicated and skilled officers whose job is to intercept the increasingly slick and sick videos posted on the internet to promote the ‘normality’ of the so-called Islamic state and have them taken down. We were also exposed to some of the extraordinarily violent videos in which these maniacs glorify. It is an uphill struggle but it is encouraging that the Government has increased funding to this important work which alas is the face of modern terrorism.
Our enquiry into counter-terrorism and radicalisation has taken us to Bradford and a number of other cities to meet young people especially to try to understand why a teenager with his or her whole life ahead or a bright university graduate drops everything to join DAESH in Syria. We have met family members of children who have left for the Middle East without warning and are later revealed to have been radicalised online underneath their noses. I do not have the answer and I hope our report will help but clearly we all have a duty to be vigilant with this cancer in our midst.
Back in Shoreham, the Sussex Community Foundation grant committee on which I sit, met recently to decide on donations to the families of the victims of the Shoreham Air Show tragedy. Thanks to the generosity of local people the fund now incredibly exceeds £190,000 and money is still coming in. I am glad to say this has enabled a number of very deserving grants to help to take some of the pressures at least off the shoulders of the families particularly when we all await the final report on the crash and the coroner’s enquiry is likely to take some time to complete. Again the local community has rallied round in a fantastic fashion.
There will be a street surgery in Southwick Square this Saturday from 10am with local councillors but I am afraid I will be away for once.