I’ve just been out shopping. The roads round here are fairly quiet but there are plenty of pedestrians presumably displaced from public transport. Most of the buses that normally stream through Islington are missing but I did see one loading up at Angel to head north. The shops were pretty quiet, with several closed, presumably because their staff could not get in. I’m still reflecting on the fact that bombs appear to have been placed at the two stations either side of the one I most often use, as well as, I believe, on a bus route I use from time to time. So quite close to home.
The Evening Standard on offer was obviously a preplanned Olympic celebration edition. An incongruity that Buddhists might see as representing the nature of existence.
I saw Red Ken (London’s Mayor) on the TV, from Singapore. I thought he struck about the right note if slightly blustering at the end. I really liked that he emphasised how multi-ethnic London is, and emphasised the cowardice of an indiscriminate attack on people who would be of any number of faiths, beliefs, ages etc; an attack not on the powerful but on the vulnerable. Spot on.
I am hoping for a defiant return to business as usual soon, without being in denial of the shock and horror of what has happened here.
UDPATE Rob Cottingham found Ken’s full statement. Here’s a snippet:
This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful; it is not aimed at presidents or prime ministers; it was aimed at ordinary working class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christians, Hindu and Jew, young and old, indiscriminate attempt at slaughter irrespective of any considerations, of age, of class, of religion, whatever, that isn’t an ideology, it isn’t even a perverted faith, it’s just indiscriminate attempt at mass murder…
(Addresing the perpertators) 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 dont 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.
