In the days that follow look at our airports, look at our sea ports and look at our railway stations and, even after your cowardly attack, you will see that people from the rest of Britain, people from around the world will arrive in London to become Londoners and to fulfil their dreams and achieve their potential. They choose to come to London, as so many have come before because they come to be free, they come to live the life they choose, they come to be able to be themselves. They flee you because you tell them how they should live. They don’t want that and nothing you do, however many of us you kill, will stop that flight to our city where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another. Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail. Ken Livingstone
The way to beat them is not to give in to them, and more democracy and democratic institutions, a complete overhaul of the education system in the Arab and Muslim worlds and the full separation of Mosque and State. The time is now. We have to get this done. Otherwise we will be completely left behind and will suffer much more at the hands of these terrorists. My heart and thoughts go to the people of the United Kingdom in this very difficult time. Mahmood Al-Yousif
This was not our September 11th. This was something we've dealt with before, repeatedly, with the various IRA campaigns and the nail bomber. The typical Londoner's response to an explosion was best summarised by Eddie Izzard: "What? A bomb? Where? Victoria? Shit! No, wait... if I change onto the Metropolitan Line, take the 130 from King's Cross..." That doesn't make it less horrific, but nor does it radically change things like 9-11 did. And god, I hope it doesn't. The American reaction to terrorism was to shout about the freedom and liberties that the enemy was trying to take away, followed by the US Government taking many of those freedoms away instead. … If this gives the government's stupid and irrelevant ID card campaign a boost, that would be a great way for the terrorists to have fucked our lives over. … if we really want to hit back at those who did this to us, one of the best ways is just not to give them the satisfaction of turning our lives upside-down, making their tactics as pointless as possible. We should care, and not try to pretend that we don't - but we shouldn't let that change things for the worse. We bury our dead, we fix the damage, we donate some blood, and we go about our business as free and as loud as ever. Yoz Grahame
I suppose this will just click more locks on the manacles of the "security state". The tedious bag checks, citizens treated as potential criminals, the erosion of the civil justice system, queues and paranoia, the compulsory carrying of ID cards. We're all now guilty until proven innocent, and especially those of us who look like strangers, who look like people who think differently. Higher suspicion means higher anomie and higher stress. The delights of the high density city are displaced by the stresses and (still largely imagined) dangers of the high density city. The high density city is always poised delicately between heaven and hell; this tips things over to the hell side. And yet I still believe in the utopian potential of big cities. Momus
Also Metroblogging London, Random Acts of Reality, small flightless bird, The Play Ethic … and Don Park:
As I have written before, we are all soldiers on the frontline of battle against terrorism, a line made up of billions of people. There is no similar line on the other side, just an expanse of impenetratable darkness. The darkness is born out of pride and despair, a mix that turns lives into explosives. It is almost comical that they have to throw their lives away to make them meaningful, but that's the lure of darkness. Hundreds on the line got hit today. Much more will die before the dawn comes. I am sorry but today is just another day at the frontline for me. I'll cry for the dead when the dawn comes, but not before.
