DEXTER DIAS
I’ve spent months with terrorists, in high-security prisons, in court cells —defending them. Not defending their actions, but their rights. Should I have done so? Should anyone? This question was put to me at the recent Hay Festival in Wales. After I gave a talk, a woman put up her hand. She burned with anger, she said, when she heard I’d acted for terrorists; she had every right to feel that way. She was a Tube driver on the Circle line and a survivor of 7/7. This was only the second time she had mentioned that fact in public. That exchange took place at 2pm on Saturday 3rd June. At around 10pm, three men committed indiscriminate murder on London Bridge and at Borough Market.
In the aftermath of those attacks, many around the UK will have felt the same as my questioner. Certainly, Theresa May was counting on that when she announced that she would change human rights law if it “gets in the way” of fighting terrorism. But this is a lazy substitute for thinking about the real problem. I’ve spent the best part of a decade grappling with the very worst human instincts. Keeping ourselves safe from terrorism has to start by understanding what it is that can make these people, young men normally, ready to maim and murder in this way.