Drink deep, folks
Some of the best of the blogs today:
Make My Vote Count: Being British is Great
We did not panic, we did not crumble. We did not burst into irrational fits of anger and go rushing out looking for a scapegoat, a religious group to lynch or a country to bomb. We decamped to the pubs and took the rest of the day off.
We showed the world how to industrialise, how to play cricket and now we're showing them how to cope in a crisis.
For all of this we should be very, very proud.
Skip's Acorn Treasury: Inspector Fenner
“Will Inspector Fenner please report to the office” they said over the intercom at Euston.
“Oh,” said my flatmate who knows all things. “That's a call sign, you know.”
The sirens went off, and they swept us out of the station.
And then there was a very gentle boom.
The London News Review: A Letter To The Terrorists, From London
What the fuck do you think you're doing?
This is London. We've dealt with your sort before. You don't try and pull this on us.
Do you have any idea how many times our city has been attacked? Whatever you're trying to do, it's not going to work.
So you can pack up your bombs, put them in your arseholes, and get the fuck out of our city.
We are not terrorised.
We are just annoyed.
The Germans tried to terrorise Londoners for 40 nights. Londoners just camped out in the Tube singing songs.
The IRA tried to terrorise the British for decades. The British just used the destruction of buildings as unplanned town planning and revamped their bombed cities.
Now these amateurs think they can scare us by messing up the transport system? Bah. We're just pissed off that we can't meet our friend for coffee in the West End.
Piss off, terrorists. Go pick on someone who gives a shit…. You'll get the reaction you want from Americans. Try them again.*
* not really, obviously
And from the same blog, again:
Gia's Blog: Terror Alert Level: More Beer!
People died today. That's a terrible thing for their families, most certainly. But didn't you kids learn anything last weekend? I mean at least we don't have 50,000 people dying every day here, you know? Jesus, the NHS certainly wouldn't be able to cope with that. And, gosh, I wonder if Iraqis will think what happened in London today is worth even noticing? Get some perspective.
Oh, but Gia, you seem so uncaring, so heartless, people died today blahblahblah…
For a relatively small number of people today was an awful day. I understand that. But every day is the last day of someone's life. Does that mean that the rest of us have to stop living? Of course it doesn't. That is what being a Londoner is all about- just getting on with what you want to do and not letting anyone or anything get in your way.
So, relax, all you non-Brits, let us deal with this. Sit down, have a nice cuppa tea, everything will be fine.
And what about the Olympics, eh? Brilliant. Bloody brilliant.
Bourbon creme?
Pfff: Surviving a Terrorist Attack
The train left the tracks and started to rumble down the tunnel. It was incapable of stopping and just rolled on. A series of explosions followed as if tube electric motor after motor was exploding. Each explosion shook the train in the air and seems to make it land at a lower point.
I fell to the ground like most people, scrunched up in a ball in minimize injury. At this point I wondered if the train would ever stop, I thought “please make it stop”, but it kept going. In the end I just wished that it didn't hit something and crush. It didn't.
Europhobia: London Tube Explosions
Cheers for the messages of support. London's grateful. And we're going to keep our heads. Stiff upper lip and all that – wouldn't do to get all emotional. Hardly British – and if we stop being British about it, the bastards have won. So we'll have a few beers, make as many sick jokes about it in pubs up and down the land as we can, and get on with our lives as normal. Other than causing the grief of too many innocent people, these cunts will have achieved precisely fuck all. We shall not be moved.
Non-trivial solutions: An open letter
To the terrorist cunts who tried to kill me today:
Fuck you. You missed me. Better luck next time.