It wouldn't be a miss to feel pure, cold rage when reading news such as this. But not for the reasons or with the response you imply. We should feel pure, cold rage that a British citizen can walk our streets with a weapon and decide to target innocent people because of their colour, faith or beliefs. Such acts deserve absolute condemnation, regardless of who commits them or who the victims are. We should also feel pure, cold rage at how fractured our United Kingdom has become. Rage at a political class that has spent years dividing rather than uniting. Rage at the steady erosion of public trust in institutions that were once respected. Rage at policies that have left many communities feeling unheard, ignored, or abandoned. Rage at short-sighted decisions that weakened our energy security, strained public services, and left the country increasingly dependent on others. Rage at a climate where legitimate concerns are too often dismissed, allowing resentment and frustration to fester beneath the surface. Rage at the failure to confront extremism in all its forms, whether it wears the colours of race, religion, ideology, or nationalism. Rage at every failure, political and social, that allows division to grow until the extremists rush in to fill the void. Because while the man wielding the knife is responsible for his own actions, societies ignore growing tensions at their peril. The United Kingdom's diversity remains one of its greatest strengths. For generations, people of different backgrounds, faiths, and cultures have lived, worked, and prospered together. That is something worth defending, not destroying. So yes, pure, cold rage. Rage at the attacker. Rage at the hatred. Rage at the violence. Of course, that does not mean turning to violence. It means its not wrong to feeling anger that such atrocities are possible in the first place. Anger at weak leadership, institutional cowardice, and years spent ignoring problems rather than confronting them. The attacker is responsible for the act. Those who systematically allowed the conditions in which such hatred can flourish are responsible for the failure.
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