Nigel Farage and Katie Hopkins have continued their condemnation of the UK’s response to last week’s terror attack, branding anyone claiming to be carrying on as normal as “pathetic”.
Hopkins took to her LBC radio show to lambast a number of personalities who had publicly made a stand of defiance.
She said: “... you tell me ‘you carry on’. You tell me ‘we’re united’. You put up there, Phillip Schofield, that as an act of defiance, you walked across Westminster Bridge?
“You are pathetic. You are pathetic. You walked across a bridge, you walked down a pavement?
“Dan Snow, you took a video on your way to work, showing pictures of pretty flowers? No you are not brave. You are not united. You are cowed. You happen to think, that that’s the new normal?”
Without offering an alternative option, Hopkins went on to say “cracking on like you did yesterday” was “not good enough” in the fight against terrorism.
She added: “This country is not united, you can stand there, just outside this building, you can see how cross I am, I’m really, really cross, in Leicester Square, you stand there in Trafalgar Square, with your little tea lights.”
Farage gave the rant a nod of approval by retweeting a line.
In fairness, Phillip Schofield did take a bit of a ribbing over his defiance walk...
But the overwhelming response to last week’s attack appears at odds with the stance of Farage and Hopkin,s who both appeared on Fox News shortly after the attack to say Britain was a country living in fear.
But there might be another, simpler explanation for Britain’s response - our streets are safer than they have been in decades.
Across Western Europe, even with the threat posed by so-called Islamic State, the number of civilians killed in terrorist attacks is lower now than in the 1970s, 80s, 90s - and comparable with the last decade.
When looking at the UK in isolation, the difference is starker: Since 2000, 94 people have been killed by terrorists in Britain, an average of 5.5 each year.
This compares to the 665 pedestrians killed on average each year in traffic accidents (which in itself may warrant the simple act of walking along the pavement to be called “brave”).
Extreme elements such as Britain First have also entered the debate.
Britain First Deputy leader, Jayda Fransen, said in a video message: “Wake up... what are you waiting for?
“It’s not enough to change your Facebook profile picture to a Union Jack and a candle and post on Twitter how disgusted you are.”
Then, as images of refugees flash behind her, she adds: “There’s no point in... carrying on as normal as our government betrays us by welcoming hundreds of thousands of people into our midst who want us dead.”
The Westminster attacker, Khalid Masood, 52, was born in Kent.