Private Thoughts Made Public

Wow, it’s been a hell of a week for London, hasn’t it? Last weekend there was the flagship Live8 show in Hyde Park and the finals of the tennis at Wimbledon. On Wednesday it is announced that London will host the 2012 Olympics. And then on Thursday morning the terrorist bombings. I live 200 miles north of London, and the nearest big city to me was bombed by the IRA in 1996 (funnily enough, I was living near London at the time), so I can’t speak from experience about how I would react if I had been near one of the attacks. I just received the following in an email, the sender says he found it on a livejournal post (although he doesn’t say which one). I present it here as an overall view of the British reaction to the attacks yesterday. I’ve no idea how genuine these quotes are, but a lot of them do seem to echo my views on the matter, and some of them are far more eloquent and to the point that I could ever be. At the end, I’ve put a link to the a BBC news page showing photographs taken by people caught in the blasts. Read the quotes first, then look at the photos. You’ll see what we’re talking about.
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Coping with emergencies the British way: The nearest branch of Pret has sold out of chocolate cake.
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Photo of the statue of Edith Cavell, British nurse who was killed in the first world war:
“Patriotism is not enough: I must have no hatred or bitterness for anyone”.
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These terrorists are rubbish.
They’ll be caught next week, having successfully demonstrated that the British react to terrorism with indifference. We grew up with it, you see. What with this being a civilised country, they will not receive the death penalty, but be locked up for the rest of their lives, to be regularly sodomised by other inmates while they slowly realise that their interpretation of their religion is a pile of old hokum. Whoops. Meanwhile, I’ll be out in London, partying.
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On days like this, the music radio stations play sad music – if they play any music at all. I turned on the radio in the bathroom when I was taking my shower just now, and they were playing One by U2.
HAVEN’T WE SUFFERED ENOUGH?
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I’m watching the news, I do it occasionally, it seems like a good time to do so. And I’m seeing a guy who was blown off his feet by a bus going up, but basically he’s okay and being interviewed. And, shock allowed, he’s pretty much laughing it off. Another interview, a woman who was on the tube, just the same response but maybe a little more detailed. I love the UK sometimes, I really do. What happened is horrible, I don’t diminish it and I hope those responsible are suitably punished, possibly with chainsaws … but if they wanted terror well, they probably shouldn’t have gone to London. Not because Londoners are particularly braver than anyone else (although they might be, have you seen the prices there?) but because they’ve walked through a helluva lot worse than that.
Nice try, no cigar.
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Was at Tavistock Square – close enough to get a nose-bleed, but not close enough to get showered by debris, which really did travel up high, and also, far enough to be otherwise absolutely fine. A bit shaken but feeling lucky.
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I called in sick with a migraine today. My psychic powers are awesome! [(I told him my girlfriend also called in sick).] She and I should form a psychic taskforce! Anywhere we don’t want to go,
THERE BE BOMBS!
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All these explosions are rather scary. Don’t suppose the French are that sore at losing the Olympics, are they?
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This doesn’t look good, does it?
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People saying ‘I’ve lived in London for four years, I’m sort of prepared for this sort of thing.’
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“Speaking on behalf of the people of Essex, we are standing by you the peoples of Londonia in these trying times. Mainly because Suffolk won’t swap places with us.”
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Gosh.
Probably not going up to Angel today then.
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God, I wish I’d brought my decent camera.
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Got back from a meeting to find 9 missed calls and 12 emails. Thanks for the concern
I’m fine, luckily I get the tube (through liverpool street) at about 7.10am…
Tavistock square is GODDAMN CLOSE TO MY HOUSE, dammit.
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As lithium_doll pointed out, the witnesses on the news seem to be very calm. Most of the Londoners are more concerned with how they’re getting to work tomorrow, and act as though it’s all a rather distateful inconvenience.
HURRAH!
The great British Spirit triumphs once again! Take that, Al Quaeda. You tried to spread panic with your terrorist ways, but you hadn’t counted on a nation of repressed, stiff-upper-lip Brits who refuse to show unseemly emotion in public!
People are generally spooked, but quickly contacting their friends and making plans to deal with the disruption. Good on you!
Of course, as someone pointed out already, we’re used to this sort of thing – we had the IRA going at London (and Brighton when I was there) for a while now. The novelty is gone for anyone over a certain age. (I have to be careful about saying “oh, we’re used to terrorist scum being murderous bastards, we had the IRA do it” on the international political LJ’s, it tends to offend some folks. Folks who can fuck off, clearly). And as someone else on my flist said (approximately): “Blimey, I didn’t think the French would be THAT upset…”
UPDATE: stu_n just provided this, which is completely brilliant.
BBC Parliament internal email: NEWSFLASH:
There has been a widespread outbreak of grumbling and tutting today in London, along with a large number of people going home instead of to work, with a certain amount of guilty pleasure.
Sorry, bad guys. We’ve been bombed before, and we just adjust our day to account for it. This is London calling.
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“No, really, we’re not scared. You can try and kill as many people as you want, you’re still going to lose because we’re just that damn British. Also? Notice those docks and airports? Still open to the freedom loving folk. Suck it, bitch.”
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It was just announced that the queen is deeply shocked and that it has been decided that the Congestion charge (a toll to use a car in London) will not be in place today – how I love the British.
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“I’d like to congratulate today’s terrorists for achieving nothing but instilling a fierce patriotism back into the British Isles, creating a rather wide-spread rash of Blitz Spirit, and giving me a day off work. I’m a bit pissed off that you nearly blew up some of my friends, but at the end of the day – you failed. We’re still here, we’re not scared of you.”
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From the BBC website: statement from Al Qaeda:
“Britain is now burning with fear, terror and panic in its northern, southern, eastern, and western quarters”.
Erm really… where? I think you will find that’s a reaction to the winning the Olympics bid or perhaps just the effect Bush has on us when he visits?!
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The people of London have responded to all this exactly the way I always imagined we would; with humour, strength and defiance. I’ve never been more proud to be British, and never more proud to be a Londoner. Pip pip.
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During the second statement by Blair, he was surrounded by the various heads of state and representatives to the G-8 gathering. And there stood ol’ W, with the usual confused look on this face – likely wondering who had his copy of “My Pet Goat”.
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God I love the British…
Nobody does pissed off disdain like ‘em…
This *rules*