The Woolwich Murder.

The last time I checked the purpose of terrorism was to induce terror. Therefore I've always felt that terrorist attacks are generally best ignored wherever possible.

However as my father's always been the sort to scare easily when I woke up this morning he couldn't wait to tell me about how the fact that Ingrid Loyau-Kennett (from Cornwall) who confronted one of the alleged attackers of Fusilier Lee Rigby in the Woolwich district of London yesterday (22/5/13) was a cub scout leader reminded him of that time an Eden Strang walked into my local Saint Andrews Roman Catholic church with two swords and started hacking away at the congregation. As it was far too early for me to put up with him once again showing off the little bit of cheap tin the Scout association will give Ms Loyau-Kennett for her 'bravery' I quickly changed the subject to point out that the way the blue Vauxhall Tigra car had crashed in Woolwich reminded me of an incident during the Croydon branch of the August 2011 riots. Basically the police put a line of riot police across the junction between London Road and Station/Tamworth Road to contain the crowd on London Road. So members of the crowd simply hijacked a passing car and drove it at speed into the line of riot police who sensibly moved out of the way.

Also one of the alleged attackers has been identified as Michael Adebolajo a 28 year old UK national with Nigerian ancestry. The Nigerian connection is a clear reaction to the current state of emergency that has been declared across three states in north-eastern Nigeria in response to the threat by the Islamist Boko Haram terrorist group. The UK is absolutely livid about this. You see they'd been building up Boko Haram in order scare the Nigerian government into deploying troops to the conflict in Mali. Rather logically the Nigerian government have instead decided to solve the problem in their own country first.

On an entirely related note the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) which is the umbrella group for Islamists in Mali, Nigeria, Niger, Chad and other West African nations have claimed responsibility for two suicide bomb attacks today in Niger that killed 20 at an army barracks in Agadez and at the French owned Somair uranium mine near Arlit. The targetting of the uranium mine was clearly intended to strengthen support for MUJAO's cause by portraying the foreigners they're fighting in Mali as colonialists there to steal Africa's natural resources. The reality of the situation is much more complicated then that. However the main message of the co-ordinated twin attacks in a nation that had until now been untouched by the conflict in Mali that there is still a lot of fight left in the Malian Islamists.

16:50 on 23/5/13.