The attackers in London used a car and knives as weapons. Don't confuse selling weapons/aircraft to the Saudis with these attacks with comments like "stop selling the Saudis weapons". There are 2 different issues.
- Saudi are promoting salafi Islam across the world - that's what needs to be stopped - read some of the links I've posted
- Our private companies can make a decision about stopping selling weapons, but be clear, they are not being used in this country.
Terrorist groups thrive in chaos, where there is a mix of poor governance and poverty. Terrorist groups provide an alternative to poverty for these men who have no options in life. There are TED talks by researchers who explain this really well. In the long term we have to eradicate poverty - google UN papers to see how that is being promoted on a global scale (includes education, gender equality, promotion of human rights, supporting governance etc) - foreign AID is important here, and countries have to work together to help promote this across the world.
The vacuum left after the Iraq War and the civil war in Syria (where the West has flip flopped with its support for Assad, and now with Russia involved its a tinder box) has created the exact environment for these ideologists to set up their caliphate. If we hadn't bombed them and supported the Iraqi army to fight back, they would have continued to expand their territory - their aim is a global caliphate, and anyone who disagrees with them will get killed, burned alive, pushed off a building.
They hate us and our way of life, our values. We can't pussy foot around this - that's why an aggressive response has been the only response - to contain them and reduce their territory in the Middle East.
We could have been more hard line with returning fighters - google Liberty papers (Shami Chakrabarti (now Shadow Attorney General) used to be in charge here) and see the issues the Govt have faced being more hard line. It's the balance between civil liberties, human rights and protection.
Read papers by David Anderson, the independent reviewer of terrorist legislation (until recently).
Here's FullFact re: a question raised on police funding
fullfact.org/bbcqt/2017/Mar/23
Police funding down, counter terrorism up 30%
The nature of the threat has changed over the last 5 yrs - between 2013-March 2017 there were 13 terror plots. Since March 2017 there have been 8 in 70 days. This threat is adapting and we need to aswell.
I would put way more money into counter terrorism, surveillance and I would increase powers to detain suspects (but there will be howls of outrage from the human rights campaigners). I would look at our prisons and I would listen to campaigners from Quilliam about working with the Muslim community. I would ban faith schools.