major incident in London

Agreed.

Now comes the aftermath. Perhaps the most difficult time for those who lost loved ones or who don't know where their family member or friends are safe.

The Brits have been more than remarkable in their strength and resilience. Something like this will never defeat your courage and determination.

Hats off to all of you.

Diane, Your "plate" is showing.

""The identification process is a legal process led by the coroner and it will take some time before the coroner decides to release the details once all the formal identification has been done," said Andy Trotter, the deputy chief constable of the British Transport Police."

BBC

Received from a friend in Australia. It speaks volumes about how our administration plays the people of our country like a fiddle.


"Immediately following the bombings in London, the U.S. Department of
Homeland Secuity issued the following alert:

July 7, 2005 -- The United States government is raising the
threat level from Code Yellow -- or Elevated -- to Code Orange
-- or High -- for the mass transit portion of the transportation
sector. This only includes regional and inter-city passenger
rail, subways and metropolitan bus systems. We do not have
any specific, credible intelligence indicating an attack in the
United States, but we are constantly evaluating both
intelligence and our protective measures and will take
whatever actions are necessary.

Transportation officials are increasing protective measures
including:
** additional law enforcement, bomb-detecting K-9 teams,
** increased video surveillance,
** spot testing in certain areas,
** additional perimeter barriers, extra intrusion detection
equipment and increased inspections of trash receptacles
and other storage areas.

Meanwhile, back in London, what did British authorities do? Did they
institute a national alert? ... No. Did they close down the subways
indefinitely? ... No.

In fact, the morning after the bombings, Londoners returned to work,
calmly and purposefully. No hype. No wailing and feeling sorry for themselves.
No patriotic chants. No mad waving of flags nor talk of war or 'justice'.
No ridiculous claims of the world changing.

Now pick the strong people, the rational nation, the stable society.
Pick the people with their feet firmly connected to the ground. Pick the
community that is simply not intimidated by a few nasty nutters. The
Poms don't talk about it, they do it. Without fuss. Without fear. Without
the need for "coded alerts" even.

Those 2 do fine - there are plenty of others. For instance, there was that whole "Remember the Maine" thing. And I figure we should never have backslid on "54-40 or Fight". <giggles blathamward>

I'd say that backing down in Oregon and accepting the extension of the 49th parallel boundary was less a case of backsliding than a realistic military assessment.

How would you redress those two mistakes, Timber?

No argument, Set; it was an unrealistic ambition.


... but its fun to wave that cape at blatham

We are redressing our past errors re Iraq, indeed, re the entire region - that's a major component of our presence there now. Iran well may come under similar care in the not too distant future, though what I suspect there is a popular revolt against the mullahocracy. That may take a while, but many are the signs that pot is beginning to bubble. Stable, dempcratic, US-freindly Iraq and Afghanistan on Iran's borders is a concept of great concern to Irann's theocratic ruling elite; it is very possible that as things progress and improve in Afghanistan and Iraq that Iran will overplay her hand and force the issue.

But now, back to Blighty:

The war in Iraq is redress for our past errors there?

Have we even acknowledged our past errors thereof? I haven't heard anything of that nature coming from the government.

The foreign victims

Hoping, you got email contact meanwhile!

Have just recovered from a marvellous day in London yesterday, at the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the end of the war.

Like many thousands of fellow Londoners, I spent the afternoon doing a lot of flag waving, drinking slightly too much beer, searching out a loo in order to make room in the bladder for some more, and getting sunburn because I forgot to put on sufficient block before leaving the house.

At around 5 ish, I experienced what Londoners used to call "Luftwaffe neck", whilst searching for signs of the fly past. In the end I gave up and sat outside the Pub, but kept leaping up every time I heard an overhead growling noise. This, on several occasions, turned out to be the Landlords German Shepherd, looking out of the upstairs bedroom window.

Communal lumps in throats were experienced when the Catalina finally roared overhead, followed by various other wartime aircraft, including a very rare sight nowadays, a Lancaster in flight.

I am very pleased to announce that I spotted several "tourists", including Americans, Japanese and some very gorgeous blonde German girls.
The vast majority, however, were Londoners who were determined to enjoy a day in the sun and stick two fingers up to the buggers that tried to shaft them last Thursday. Lots of laughter, litter and sunburn everywhere. A normal summers day, really.

I was once having "Englishness" drunkenly explained to me, a few years ago, by a group of various Johnny foreigners in my local Pub. Lots of mickey taking ensued (the usual teeth thing, bad cooks etc), but all were in agreement that we had a great penchant for humour. One person said that she couldnt get over the atmosphere of a Pub when she first arrived.

She says that the British seem to have a compulsion to laugh at things, even when the subject warrants serious discussion. I would say that she just about hit the nail on the head with that observation.

Something awful happens one day, and within a very short period of time, everyone has moved on and is getting on with things as normal.
This doesnt mean to say that the matter is forgotten, rather the fact that it is not allowed to rule ones life after a couple of days.

This humour in adversity is quite normal, and can appear to be in bad taste to an outsider, but it is a wonderful coping mechanism. The British female has this addition to their armour in bucketloads. The "musnt grumble" comment earlier in this thread, can be experienced on a daily basis. Her ability to cope during prolonged periods of adversity has been well documented.

Maybe this is why British marriages last so long.

London has now reopened for business as usual.....but the pubs are temporarily dry, so bring your own bottle.

The quintessential example of the English stiff upper lip, as it were.

Excellent, your lordship, just excellent. Your attitude is profoundly inspiring.

It isn't surprising that exactly this was noticed by others as well.
So our lordship is pictured on the front page of a ... ehem ... newspaper whilst looking up in the blue London sky


(<click on the pic to enlarge>

I'm the one in the matching blue feather hat.

I love the way they are all looking in differnent directions, like they are looking for something.

Well said, your Lordshipness.

I couldn't see the point in this extra celebration actually, but coming just after 7/7 it was very handy to bring people together, and celebrate a bit of Britishness.

I've got a strong feeling we are going to catch he perps soon. The people, all of them, don't like being f*cked about.

Great post, Lordie, er, your Lordiesness, blue-feathered hat and all.

Cheers

Joe(Are those folks looking for where their power went?)Nation

A million poppies have been dropped above London by a Lancaster bomber.