London Bridge attack: we must learn the right lessons – plus RMT Christmas strike begins

Flowers lay on the corner of London Bridge Walk this morning where on Friday two lives were lost due to the terror attack. Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, were attending the Learning Together programme when they were fatally stabbed by convicted terrorist Usman Khan.

Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn and Sadiq Khan joined the vigil at Guildhall Yard this morning to honour the victims, families, emergency services and those who stepped in to help stop the attacker.

Many people are understandably unhappy with how our politicians have handled this attack, and want answers. The Evening Standard’s Home Affairs editor Martin Bentham explains to The Leader podcast the failures that led to the London Bridge attack – and says we should be careful to learn the right lessons.

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For the next 27 days commuters on routes to Waterloo will experience disrupted or cancelled services caused by an RMT strike. On Monday morning cancellations, delays and overcrowding had already begun. South Western Railway has cancelled almost half of its usual daily schedule of around 1,800 trains. 

The walkouts will last up to and including New Year’s Day with the only exceptions being December 12 for the general election, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

The Leader podcast spoke to Jonathan Prynn from the Evening Standard – he explains why the Evening Standard today says the strikes should be stopped.

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TRANSCRIPT

PRESENTER:       

You can subscribe to The Leader through your preferred podcast providers, so you never miss out, every day at 4pm. Now, from the Evening Standard in London, this is The Leader.

PRESENTER:       

Hi, I'm David Marsland.

Our intelligence services work to keep the country safe. Sometimes they can't...

MARTIN BENTHAM:

There are 3000 active subjects of interest as another 20,000 or so, so called close subjects of interest unless you want to go down the road of having thousands of people pursued 24 hours a day, then you can't possibly have a fail safe system of trying to detect what's when somebody is going to do something so simple.

PRESENTER:       

Our Home Affairs editor Martin Bentham on why failure that led to the London Bridge attack must not lead to the wrong lessons being learned. Also...

JONATHAN PRYNN:

Overcrowding cancellation delays, not just for one day but for 27 working

PRESENTER:       

The Standards Jonathan Prynn on the rail strike that's bringing misery to thousands.

PRESENTER:       

Taken from the Evening Standard editorial column, this is The Leader. For the whole thing pick up the newspaper or head to standard.co.uk/comment. In a moment the questions we should be asking in the wake of the London Bridge...

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