Crime and Policing Bill

Debate between Lord Weir of Ballyholme and Lord Katz

Report stage
Wednesday 18th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Weir of Ballyholme (DUP)]

Does the noble Lord agree that, as we saw recently, it is also the extent to which, if we normalise the sense of terrorism, it feeds into future terrorism? To give an example of this, when we saw the terrible shooting of John Caldwell—thankfully, despite horrendous injuries, the officer survived—and, a day or two later, the police arrived on an estate to arrest one of the suspects, there were a number of young people in that area who were cheering on not the arrest but the potential culprit. I suspect that they were doing that through a level of ignorance, but there is the seeping in of the idea that terrorism is acceptable to a new generation. That means that, while it is bad enough in terms of the memories of those who have gone through it, it is creating the fertile ground—

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

I remind the noble Lord that interventions are meant to be short and to ask a question; his has gone on for quite a while.

[Lord Weir of Ballyholme (DUP)]

I was just going to say: fertile ground for the future.