Jayne Dowle: Armed police guard Meadowhall, so why not Westminster?

I’ve been giving much thought to this question. It should also be uppermost in the minds of those who make the decisions about keeping all of us safe.

We went on a family outing to the mega-mall just outside Sheffield at Christmas.

I was surprised, but relieved, to see officers walking through the twinkling decorations two abreast and tooled up with serious hardware.

My 11-year-old daughter was scared, but reassured when we told her that these officers were there for our safety and protection.

I tried not to give much thought to what kind of eventualities these firearms specialists might be preparing for. We carried on looking round the shops, our Christmas spirit slightly subdued.

That’s the thing with this new kind of terrorism. There is no point trying to think too much or second-guess where an attack might come from.

It’s not a nice feeling, explaining machine guns to an 11-year-old girl, but you might as well put your worries to the back of your mind and get on with it.

However, this does not mean that we should not be prepared for the worst possible case scenario.

This is why I find it reprehensible that police officer Keith Palmer should be sent to stand at the gates of Westminster Palace entirely unarmed. He lost his life, stabbed by the knife-wielding attacker named as Khalid Masood who was hell-bent on a mission of terror. Pc Palmer’s firearms colleagues shot and killed the assailant, as the 48-year-old husband and father lay dying on the ground.

In the immediate aftermath of this tragic event, I heard various excuses from politicians as to why not all officers doing their duty in and around Westminster have the protection of firearms. Really though, there is no excuse that can justify a loyal policeman giving up his life like this.

As any politician should know by now, terrorists will always look for weak spots and possible holes in security. No-one will ever know whether Pc Palmer was a pre-meditated target or an opportunistic kill. And of course, there is the argument that even if he did have a gun to hand, there is no guarantee that it would have saved his life. What is clear though is that a situation like this should never, ever be allowed to happen again.

No-one likes to see guns on the streets of any town or city. However, this is no time for finer feelings. A police officer’s life should not be put at risk, unarmed. It is terribly poignant that Pc Palmer’s seat at his beloved Charlton Athletic FC now stands empty, shrouded with his scarf.

It was even sadder though to see aftermath news footage of officers investigating suspicious addresses in Birmingham protected to the hilt with combat uniforms and an array of weapons. Too late now.

Yet, we cannot dwell. We have to be tough. And that means that Members of Parliament must now consider in detail the security arrangements put in place to protect them.

Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith MP has questioned why there was not an armed presence at the gates where the incident took place, and said it was a “little bit of a surprise that there was not”.

This has to be the under-statement of the year. Pc Palmer was a member of the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, a special operations branch of the London Metropolitan Police Service responsible for protecting embassies, diplomats, and the parliamentary estate.

The unit is an armed command, meaning that most of its men and women are “authorised firearms officers”. Weapons commonly carried by officers include the Glock 17 pistol and the Heckler & Koch MP5 sub-machine gun.

Despite this, not all officers of the command carry firearms. It is beyond the remit of ordinary members of the public to question why this might be. Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has already confirmed that a review of security around the Parliamentary estate will be carried out. A major point will be to establish whether officers on the front gate at Westminster should be armed or not. I’d say that this shouldn’t even be in question.

We’re going on another family outing soon. This time it’s to London, to visit friends and extended family. People have questioned whether we are right to do so, especially with the children.

I think on balance, we are. The nature of modern terrorism means that no-one knows where it will strike next. We cannot second-guess, or allow ourselves to be bowed. If we do this, we are giving in to those who wish to wreak havoc in our country. However, at the very least we should be able to expect those whose job it is to protect us are able to protect themselves.

I urge the Prime Minister, her Government and every police commissioner in the land to take this seriously – for the sake of every one of us, be they police officer, politician or member of the public.