Whangarei MP Shane Reti is in the UK and captured this image of floral tributes to those killed in last week's terror attack on Westminster Bridge, above.
Whangarei MP Shane Reti is in the UK and captured this image of floral tributes to those killed in last week's terror attack on Westminster Bridge, above.
London seems puzzled and saddened by last week's terror attack that killed five people near the House of Parliament, Whangarei MP Shane Reti, who is in the UK capital this week, says.
Dr Reti is in London to chair a cybersecurity session in the UK Parliament in the Palace ofWestminster just days after four people were killed and 50 injured when Khalid Masood drove his car into people on Westminster Bridge and stabbed an unarmed police officer guarding Parliament last Thursday.
PC Keith Palmer, 48, died of his wounds and Masood was shot dead by police.
Dr Reti has been in London several days and has already led a workshop ahead of hosting the energy cybersecurity session in Parliament tomorrow and has walked daily across Westminster Bridge past the hordes of floral tributes to the dead and injured.
''I chair the energy security session on Wednesday afternoon UK time. Security is very tight around the conference and conference venue,'' he told the Northern Advocate.
''The mood among Londoners I talk to ... is one of puzzlement for the attacker and sadness for the police officer who was killed. People are puzzled because the attacker was not the stereotypical migrant who was born and radicalised overseas and then moved to the UK.
''This attacker was born and bred in England. His mother lives in Wales. He didn't arrive here for a better life he had a better life, the UK life and yet somehow he was able to be converted to extreme views and actions.''
Dr Reti said there is also intense sadness for Mr Palmer.
''Despite thousands of people passing the House of Parliament every day there is some reverence and a hushing of crowd noise around where the flowers have been laid,'' he said.
The conference is sponsored by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and the opening sessions have a strong theme around national security.
After the terrorist attack security has been tightened up around the UK parliament and the decision was made late last week that the conference would proceed.
