I don't live there, although I have a brother there, some relatives and no doubt some friends I've lost touch with ....

Anything I could say (about the cold-blooded murder of a reservist and a one-man attack on the Parliament Building) would be just a statement of the obvious, or a sputtering declamation of how different things would be if I ran the country.

Having said that, I do, in this instance, actually have some faith in our authorities to follow this up with practical, sensible measures to deal with the threat of Islamist lunatics, without getting carried away.

The one pleasant surprise that came out of this was that it was Parliament's "Sergeant-at-Arms", Kevin Vickers, who shot and killed the attacker. Most of us, I'm sure, regarded his as merely a ceremonial role: a suitably grave fellow heading for the end of his working life, required to dress up like a 'town-crier', and strut along with the golden mace over his shoulder at the opening of Parliament .... Turns out he's not a man to trifle with ....