A bizarre but perhaps unsurprising intervention from former Met police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu who tells The Guardian on the twentieth anniversary of the attacks:
“A driver of the 7/7 attacks was foreign policy and Iraq. That does not excuse in any way what they did. That foreign policy decision has radicalised and made extremists of people who might not have been radicalised or extreme. And if they were on the pathway, it’s pretty much guaranteed… All terrorists will have a freedom fighter story.”
Of course the real driver of the 7/7 attacks was the terrorists themselves. Blaming Western foreign policy is the very same excuse used by terrorists themselves for their murderous actions…
That’s the same Neil Basu who called British policing institutionally racist, alleged Suella Braverman used “horrific” rhetoric about migrants, and said Farage was giving the EDL “succour.” No wonder British policing is in such a dire state after years of this ‘leadership’…
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”