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Allison Morris: Is there anything the British establishment can learn from the Troubles in fight against new terror?

Police vehicles in a street near London Bridge during Saturday night's terrorist incidents. Picture by Dominic Harris, Press Association
Police vehicles in a street near London Bridge during Saturday night's terrorist incidents. Picture by Dominic Harris, Press Association Police vehicles in a street near London Bridge during Saturday night's terrorist incidents. Picture by Dominic Harris, Press Association

THERE'S a depressing familiarity to the ongoing and increasingly frequent terror attacks in the UK.

Armed police, security alerts, the sound of gunfire, the sunken faces of bereaved mothers, the condemnation and political platitudes that bring little comfort to those who have lost.

That could be a summary of what life was like for many of us more than 20 years ago.

But while the pain of the families of the victims of Manchester, where I reported from less than two weeks ago, and now London is exactly the same as the pain of victims in Northern Ireland, this is a very different kind of 'war' and a very different kind of threat.

Technology has advanced since the end of our own conflict.

A member of ISIS in Pakistan can have a a conversation with a radicalised young Muslim in east London without either of them having to leave their own home.

Talk of closing the borders and banning Muslim migrants, becomes a moot point when the killers turn out to be born and raised in the UK.

Pictures of civillians being slaughtered by western armed regimes are a powerful tool for those who wish to exploit global suffering to further their own aims.

Those calling for internment of suspects have clearly no knowledge or memory of what a massive failure that tactic was when used in the north, radicalising a new generation of young people who would never have became involved in violence otherwise.

Of course steps must taken to tackle an ideology that believes there is a reward in heaven for killing children at a pop concert and that denies women their rights.

But that does not and cannot mean criminalising the most popular religion on earth.

Harsher anti terror laws will have no impact on a lone attacker armed with a knife and a car, they need no support network, no access to weaponry, for the tools of their terrorism can be found in any kitchen drawer and they don't care if they live or die.

There have been comparisons made between our own past and this new and dangerous terrorist threat - mostly as political stick to beat Jeremy Corbyn with - but it does warrant some real discussion. Maybe a starting point would be clarifying if the British establishment learned anything from their involvement in Northern Ireland?