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| world of wonder |
8 Jul 2005 12:41:03 GMT |
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How about that for a week?
We "win" the Olypmics and half of fucking London starts whining about increased council tax and the amount of congestion it will all cause. We then host the G8 summit and the papers scream blue murder over a couple of thugs throwing a park bench.
Just as i'm trying to get over the disgust of seeing Bush's chimpanzee face smirking like a paedo in a bush, bits of London start exploding
I feel numb about pretty much everything. The bus that exploded, the number 30, converges onto my route in the moring. Russell Square is junction for adjacent bus routes and so there were a lot of buses around that morning. It exploded around 30 minutes after i passed on the 168. Then news spread of that one of tubes had suffered an explosion. When i heard this at work i was still oblivious to the bus explosion and we were under the impression that it was all down to power surges on the underground. I thought this unlikely as the underground no longer has it's own internal power system and is fed by the National Grid. This meant that any surges would be confirmed by the 'Grid. And that is exactly what happened. And then London hit the roof as reports came in of a number of explosions on the underground.
Two things struck me as i perused Google's news service. First of all, i was amazed at how much of a hard-on the media get whenever something like this happens. Whether you're eading a leftie broadsheet or a xenophobic red-top, chances are they love filling their precious pages with as many corpses/injured people/outraged editorials as possible. A single article by The Sun contained the word "terror" and "terrorist" eight times.
The second thing that struck me is how amazingly well Londoners are at coping with such a situation. People were offering rooms to their workmates, the Thames clippers were giving commuters a free service. People walked en mass back to their homes without complaining. I had scores of friends, Joya, Neil, Josh, Naadir, Helen Pascoe, Alex, Gill, Nisha, even Anna all the way up in Manchester, contacting me to make sure i was okay. My brother was stuck in Croydon and decided to stay home.
I'm now certain that the government will start cranking up the draconia. I can practially see Charles Clarke yammering on about ID Cards and increased checkpoints and telling people to "be vigilant" (as if that ever made any difference). But they know it's a dead end. It's a false concept designed to make people feel safe. And these bills will pass because when people are scared or confused, they like to be told what to do. It won't, however, stop the bombs or the resentment or the anger or fear - that takes compassionate leadership and strong diplomacy. And that is something our goverment does not have.
But maybe i'm beign to cynical. As i looked at the exodus of commuters around me walking home and being patient with the overcrowded streets and low-level chaos that was unfolding around them, i suddenly realised - this isn't the first time this kind of thing has happened in London. Despite the media bleating on about "London being changed forever", Londoners have had to deal with terrorism such as the IRA for decades. There's nothing anyone can do. All you have to do is look at buildings such as parilament with their blockades and security checks to realise that the politicians only intend to look after themselves. So the solution is to make our MPs accountable for any further terrorist activities as they are the ones who were voted in to protect us.
Our dear leaders may be safely tucked away in Gleneagles, but i'll be watching them closer than ever. All of them.
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| Security Clearance: 5 |
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