The organiser of the “Understanding Terrorism in the UK” conference has hit out at politicians, businesses and the police for what he described as the ‘widespread apathy’ which led him to call off the two-day event.
John Casson, who came up with the idea for the conference in February, said the level of complacency shown was of grave concern.
He has issued a damning report on what he sees as the reasons for event’s failure, which has been sent to the Prime Minister and Conservative leader David Cameron. It says that despite an advertising campaign, sending personal invitations to 1,000 of the country’s biggest employers and nearly 7,000 phone calls to promote the event, the conference website struggled to attract 15 hits a day.
Several high-profile speakers including Muhammad Abdul Bari MBE, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain and broadcaster Michael Buerk, were due to attend the event but a lack of responses meant the plug was pulled with only 40 people registered and just four weeks to go.
Casson thought the conference would prove popular, providing a forum for powerful companies and the public sector to discuss the terrorist threat. He claims that his company, Casson International Limited, did everything in its power to make the conference a success and that the ‘appalling’ response was down to apathy alone.
“To be frank the response and attitude by many of the large blue chip organisations has been quite shocking,” he said.
Tickets for the conference were priced at GB pound 475.
