This week Neil discusses the terrorist attack in Westminster

LAST week’s terrorist attack on Parliament was shocking, sickening and tragic. Terrorism must not be allowed to win. By attacking indiscriminately, violently and mercilessly, such terrorists deliberately seek to destroy our values of democracy, tolerance and freedom. The awful loss of life and many casualties are a measure of how wrong terrorism is; our thoughts and prayers remain with all those directly affected by this outrage.

To defeat terrorism, we need the appropriate levels of security. There is a balance between promoting the freedom of individuals and protecting everybody against terrorist threats.

This was brought into sharp focus last week because Parliament must be a place where people should be, and yet the risks involved were made all too apparent.

Already, specific security issues are, quite properly, under review but there must not be a rush to excessively curtail access to our democratic processes.

The swift and effective actions of all the services are to be saluted. A grateful nation saw how these professionals deal with such incidents as they unfold but each and every day they are there keeping us safe and secure.

The day itself and afterwards demonstrated many good things about our democracy. Wednesdays feature PMQs which is robust, ‘tribal’, divisive and, sometimes, even angry but this is democracy at its most acute but, once the House was suspended and news came of the attack, all MPs came together.

Parliament is like a huge family. It is not just the Members or the Peers but thousands of staff who help to make the processes function smoothly.

Last Wednesday all of them performed brilliantly in an awful situation. Normal routine was quickly and effectively reestablished. Any other response would have fallen short of what was necessary because democracy must never yield to terrorism. Being together, free and confident of our values gives us our strength.