Topic: Is everybody OK in London?

[Francois]

Just wondering if everybody is OK in London following the news...

[Mike40]

Hi Francois....thanks for the thought - it's one of those strange things that we will all pull together and do what we always do.  I remember immediately after the 7/7 attacks how everyone had to walk through central London and how little traffic there was in the streets and no buses.  Everyone may have been in a state of shock but we were all determined not to let it show.  For me, I had come off the train at Liverpool Street and was slow through the barrier, otherwise I would have caught the Circle Line train that blew up before Aldersgate.  Hundreds of us had similar stories but sadly 52 people died and 700 were injured, some grievously.  It was noticeable how sparsely populated the Tube was and how far everybody sat from everybody else the following day - sometimes it seemed as if there were only a couple of people in each carriage.  By the day after, the 9th, it all seemed to be 'carry on as before'.  Well, it's not the war.......

There are supposed to be several hundred radicalised fighters coming back from Syria and, for sure, some will slip through whatever net is put out for them.  In addition, there are the home-grown 'lone-wolves' to be accounted for.  I'm not too sure what anybody thinks they're going to achieve by killing a police officer and mowing down student visitors with a 4x4 but it certainly bears the hall-marks of such a lone-wolf attack such as Nice and Berlin.

My thoughts tonight are for the family of the officer killed, the families of those others killed who will never go home again and for those hospitalised who have a long and painful recovery in front of them.

The Republican defenders of Madrid in the Spanish Civil War had a slogan - "No Pasaran!" maybe we should adopt that to unite those countries under threat from such actions.

Your solidarity - and that of the many people who have expressed their shock and best wishes are much appreciated.

Mike.

[Late Developer]

Francois, I suspect that the vast majority of us were far enough away from the incident not to have been involved, directly.  However, I also suspect that whilst we will put a brave face on it and try to just get on with things the best way we can, it will be another "layer" of grief and fear that we will carry around.

I've worked in the City of London since 1999 and commute to Liverpool St.  I worked immediately next to the space left following the IRA bombing of the Baltic Exchange on St Mary Axe.  The building I worked in (28 or storeys of glass) was literally shattered and I managed to see the photos of the devastation and speak to some people who were working late, the evening the bomb went off.

At 7/7, I had a team member on a bus that was 100 metres or so behind the one that was blown up at Tavistock Square.  He and another colleague had just missed that bus.  That morning, I was visiting a broker just a couple of hundred yards from Aldgate tube station.  The meeting was called to a halt and, as I left, I saw the emergency vehicles arriving to start dealing with deal with the carnage.  Walking back to my office, the randomness of it all struck me and it remains with me.

Even years ago in 1980 when I worked in Manchester, I was in a building that kept getting bomb alerts and evacuations. It only became evident as I left in 1984 that there was a Home Office team working in the building and that was where the files for "H Block" IRA prisoners were kept.  A few incendiary devices were actually found in the building.

London feels like an easy target as it has so many stations and airports via which home-grown and imported nutters can arrive to commit whatever atrocity in the name of whatever ideology or perverted religious belief.  My guess is that the majority of those likely to be the lone nutters like the attack yesterday are already here and were probably born here.

We all know the authorities are doing their best to prevent and mitigate the effects of such acts but, obviously, there's no realistic way to protect 100%

[Mike40]

Says it all really.......

[Ed Wenn]

All good, thanks.

[Francois]

Pfffew!
I was hoping none of us was strolling near parliament at that time... seems it isn't the case so far.

[gsgary]

My Mother in law whatched the aftermath from here bedroom window in St Thomas's Hospital, she should have been going home Wednesday

[gsgary]

Francois, I suspect that the vast majority of us were far enough away from the incident not to have been involved, directly.  However, I also suspect that whilst we will put a brave face on it and try to just get on with things the best way we can, it will be another "layer" of grief and fear that we will carry around.

I've worked in the City of London since 1999 and commute to Liverpool St.  I worked immediately next to the space left following the IRA bombing of the Baltic Exchange on St Mary Axe.  The building I worked in (28 or storeys of glass) was literally shattered and I managed to see the photos of the devastation and speak to some people who were working late, the evening the bomb went off.

At 7/7, I had a team member on a bus that was 100 metres or so behind the one that was blown up at Tavistock Square.  He and another colleague had just missed that bus.  That morning, I was visiting a broker just a couple of hundred yards from Aldgate tube station.  The meeting was called to a halt and, as I left, I saw the emergency vehicles arriving to start dealing with deal with the carnage.  Walking back to my office, the randomness of it all struck me and it remains with me.

Even years ago in 1980 when I worked in Manchester, I was in a building that kept getting bomb alerts and evacuations. It only became evident as I left in 1984 that there was a Home Office team working in the building and that was where the files for "H Block" IRA prisoners were kept.  A few incendiary devices were actually found in the building.

London feels like an easy target as it has so many stations and airports via which home-grown and imported nutters can arrive to commit whatever atrocity in the name of whatever ideology or perverted religious belief.  My guess is that the majority of those likely to be the lone nutters like the attack yesterday are already here and were probably born here.

We all know the authorities are doing their best to prevent and mitigate the effects of such acts but, obviously, there's no realistic way to protect 100%

When i lived in Stockport in the 70's we had quite a few days of school because of IRA letter bombs

[charles binns]

When i lived in Stockport in the 70's we had quite a few days of school because of IRA letter bombs

We had the same in Maidenhead.  Some children from one of the local comprehensives got wise to the fact that if you phoned up the local paper, talked with an Irish accent and said that a bomb had been planted in one of the local schools we all got the day off.

Sadly they were caught in the end. 

[Francois]

Things like that haven't happened here since the late 1960's...

Personally, I can never figure out why people would deliberately want to hurt other people...

[gothamtomato]

Francois, I suspect that the vast majority of us were far enough away from the incident not to have been involved, directly.  However, I also suspect that whilst we will put a brave face on it and try to just get on with things the best way we can, it will be another "layer" of grief and fear that we will carry around.

I've worked in the City of London since 1999 and commute to Liverpool St.  I worked immediately next to the space left following the IRA bombing of the Baltic Exchange on St Mary Axe.  The building I worked in (28 or storeys of glass) was literally shattered and I managed to see the photos of the devastation and speak to some people who were working late, the evening the bomb went off.

And isn't Liverpool Street Station where all those people seeking shelter were killed during the Blitz?

I thoughts were with London the other day as well. I spent so much time walking back and forth across Westminster Bridge the last time I was there. I adore London. It's beautiful and the people are terrific.

[Late Developer]

Francois, I suspect that the vast majority of us were far enough away from the incident not to have been involved, directly.  However, I also suspect that whilst we will put a brave face on it and try to just get on with things the best way we can, it will be another "layer" of grief and fear that we will carry around.

I've worked in the City of London since 1999 and commute to Liverpool St.  I worked immediately next to the space left following the IRA bombing of the Baltic Exchange on St Mary Axe.  The building I worked in (28 or storeys of glass) was literally shattered and I managed to see the photos of the devastation and speak to some people who were working late, the evening the bomb went off.

And isn't Liverpool Street Station where all those people seeking shelter were killed during the Blitz?

I thoughts were with London the other day as well. I spent so much time walking back and forth across Westminster Bridge the last time I was there. I adore London. It's beautiful and the people are terrific.

Hi Debbie.

I suspect there were thousands killed at a wide variety of appointed shelters, not just Liverpool Street.  From what I can gather, some shelters weren't particularly "safe" - just a bit safer than walking the streets when the sky was full of bombers.  Thankfully, as far as we're told, this was a lone nutter with "issues" and there doesn't seem to have been any affiliation to or coordination with any wider organisation. 

Hope you're on the sunny side.  All the best.  Paul.

[Francois]

Yeah, I also heard it's just some idiot who blew a gasket... a bit like the shooter we had in Quebec city.

I don't know if in the UK there are junk radio stations that harbor hate like in Quebec?

[Mike40]

Officially now a 'solo' attack and the motive may never be known.

In respect of the London Underground shelters, there were two major losses of life.  The first occurred on 11 January 1941 when the station at Bank took a direct hit resulting in 51 peope losing their lives - although this figure has sometimes appeared as 111.

The second occurred at Bethnal Green when 173 people were crushed to death following an incident on the escalators leading to the platforms.  These were being used as rudimentary air-raid shelters.  Bill Brandt took some very evocative pictures down on the Tube platforms - but not there, I think.  This little-known disaster was obviously 'hushed-up' at the time and was not widely known until many years after the war ended.  It happened on 3 March 1943.  There is a site detailing the events at:

https://hauntedpalaceblog.wordpress.com/tag/air-raid-shelters/

Contrary to Donald Trump Jr's contention - ably supported by our own suburban Mussolini, Nigel Farage, London did not shut down last week and we are not cowed.  We grieve the loss of PC Keith Palmer and those killed in Westminster but London is London and we continue, as we always will, to welcome our visitors and incomers from around the world.

Mike.