I feel sick, saddened and my heart goes out to the families of innocent victims caught up in this tragic event.

I want to say more, but I can't find the words.

I'm in a state of shock, and I'm 200 miles away.

After the success and joy felt yesterday with the UK winning the 2012 Olympics, the scenes today are crushing.

I'm angry and very, very sad.

I feel numb to be honest. Though I'm feeling an increasing sickness. I wish this sort of shit would just stop! iT's pointless and it just reminds me of how sick our world can be.

I'm very sad too and my thoughts are with the family and friends of those affected. I have to say that I am so impressed with how everyone is handling it. English people are so resilient, they're calm and collected, they're well-organised and practical. I guess it comes from living through the Blitz and then the constant threat of the IRA!

They were very foolish to attack London. With English ex-pats spread across every country and with so many of our own living there, England will always have support from the Commonwealth and (most of) the rest of the world. To borrow from Stef, the British Empire is not dead.

And we've got your back :)

Ain'tcha just the darlin' gal ta say so :)

Al Quaeda's so stupid. What makes them think they could possibly succeed where the IRA failed?

As an American, I can say we also got your back as well. I can still remember the images of the British support for us after 9/11.

This recent attack just proves to show how misguided and misdirected these terrorists are. Great Britain? C'mon, with how high morale and willpower is in a country like that, you'd be better off firing a .32 into space and expect to hit and blow up the moon.

Really foolish, I don't understand how they could think that would be a disenheartening assault. Of course it's saddening and senseless and unnecessary, but when you've already been kicked in the balls over and over again, what makes you think that 106th time is going to make them keel over and beg for mercy? You'd be better off trying to raise a family with that camel of yours, Osama (and the like).

Cowardly attacks against a country (and people, for that matter) with actual backbone only strengthens resolve, it doesn't disperse hope. I've successly moved into my new location where 90% of the tourist are English, and I still hear them laughing and having a great time despite the tragedy AND the hurricane in their pools all around me. Good for them, I'd rather get piss-drunk or just waste a buttload of cash out on the town with a Englishman than some rich-born bleeding heart American Liberal any day of the week.

Strength and support to all.

What about the rest of us Brits? T'isn't just the English who said "fuck it" after the London bombing :(

I was just giving an example, one that I can relate to. In it's magnitude, it will still affect the entire world, that's undeniable. The one thing to remember, is that they don't like us, and they'll kill us without a second thought.

We all gotta stick together.

The Scots have a wierd sense of national pride sometimes. I was driving back down from Glen Coe the other week and in dire need of a cafe for some breakfast, which I eventually located "Full Scottish Breakfast" advertised and unlike every other cafe in the area, this one was open.

So we duly went in and a couple of nice friendly ladies served us up with our meal. Bacon, Scottish square sausage, eggs... um.. more stuff. Didn't come with any haggis, but that was ok, cos I got it as a side order.

Anyway, we are chatting away, prior to the busload of Japanese tourists arriving (which made them rather busy) and the subject of "Where are you from?" came up. So we said we're from Bradford in Yorkshire (apart from my friend Jon who was visiting from New York City, but I suppose thats why we had gone on a trip to Scotland in the first place). The lady smiles and says "Ah. Well at least you're not from down south!"

So, it's nice to know that Yorkshiremen (even adopted ones like me) are not classed as evil Sassenachs.

But, I digress...

The point (somewhere in this dissertation) is that since we stopped fighting amongst ourselves, Britain has been and remains a United Kingdom. Malingerers like Sean Connery ("Make Scotland Independant but I'm not living there!") and those welsh type who speak English unless there is an Englishman there [1] aside, I'd like to believe there is a British identity and it's important that the non-natives know about it.

As for resilience and backbone and what have you. *shrugs*. Yeah we're used to bombings and so on. Here's the real deal though. You can talk about terrorism and stuff all you want. Phooey. What happened in London was a crime. Kings Cross Station is a Crime Scene. The perpetrators are nothing more nor less than common criminals of the worst kind. We won't get upset and rant and rave, crime is a part of modern life. Everyone must learn to live with it. We won't indulge such criminals by glamourising their works and making them feel special. They aren't. We know how to deal with bombers in Britain. We catch them and we send them to prison.


[1] No, really. I once went into a Welsh pub. Silence fell upon the place. The jukebox stopped. Darts hung motionless in the air. All conversations resumed after a moment, in Welsh, when they had been in English. Had I not been with a Welsh speaking person who swore at them all loudly and colourfully in Welsh, I'd have left. As it was, they then apologised (in English) and bought us drinks - but the Welsh can really be wankers sometimes.

[quote:1dbe93958b]the Welsh can really be wankers sometimes[/quote:1dbe93958b]
PMSL

[quote:f1073c6efe="Poe"]What about the rest of us Brits? T'isn't just the English who said "fuck it" after the London bombing :([/quote:f1073c6efe]

Gah! My Scottish/Irish heritage was momentarily forgotten. When I said "English" I was really thinking of everyone living in the UK.

Excuse me now as I apologise profusely. *shame* Now I know how New Zealand feels when they get lumped in with us!

Tazmanians?

No TAManians. People of the land of Tam :)

[quote:0abe240641="Julius Darrant"]You can talk about terrorism and stuff all you want. Phooey. What happened in London was a crime. Kings Cross Station is a Crime Scene. The perpetrators are nothing more nor less than common criminals of the worst kind. We won't get upset and rant and rave, crime is a part of modern life. Everyone must learn to live with it. We won't indulge such criminals by glamourising their works and making them feel special. They aren't.[/quote:0abe240641]

I like your mode of thinking, and it would be the wisest manuver in this "fight" because it helps further the ideal that all that they're doing will never pay off, and that they will eventually be defeated. Ignoring your enemy while you pound the shit out of them sounds like the only way to deal with so-called "terrorists".

My only concern, is the fact that they're fighting their "Holy War" against the world and/or the "Infidels" as most of us are called by them. As history has shown time and time again, religion starts 99% of the world's conflicts, not even the basic sense of 'greed' that all humans share can compete with those numbers.

Look, I love religion, I think it's an incredibly wonderful thing that must be cherished, adored, and followed (by choice, of course), but let's face it: Humans just aren't capable of keeping ANY concept right. Hell, even the foolproof Democracy idea is dying, and why is that? For once, greed has more power than religion. What does that tell you about the world? Or atleast about the people that horde all the money of the world.

London took a bullet as they say, and is still movin' along in the world. That's all that matters. You're right Julius, they're just criminals preforming criminal acts against the world on a wide level in hopes of disrupting how the world turns. But instead of greed and selfishness as motivations for their attacks, they have their religion to give them strength. No thief or criminal in the world can compete against the will of a fanatic with a "purpose", and that's all that makes them different from the mother fucker that stole my bike in the 6th grade (just a basic example).

Eventually, one day in the future, these fanatics will realize that they don't have enough explosives or suicide bombers to be able to destroy everything in the world that they feel must be destroyed. When that day comes, the real tragedy will be recognized, and we'll either move towards world peace as a planet, or World War 3.

Either way, I can only hope that I'll be dead before EITHER of those options come true. ~My 2 cents

The "Jyhad" (and so here we are on a vampire board talking Jyhad... hmm) is nonsense. All right thinking moslems, globally condemn with equal vengeance the crimes that are committed by this misguided minority.

Yes, misguided.

We never learn much about suicide bombers, clearly because they are dead. We cannot sit down with them, drink tea and discuss their beliefs. If we could, I believe we would find the problem is not with religion, but with control.

The explosive jacket they wear is their matyrs shroud, which upon detonation assures their journey into paradise borne up upon the souls of their dead enemies.

Why would anyone believe such a thing? Brainwashing.

Please don't misunderstand, I have no problem with Islam, nor those who adhere to the teachings of Islam. It's a peaceful religion which teaches one to respect each other - And please let's not get into an argument about how Islam treats women or anything like that...

"The women have rights similar to the rights against them, according to what is equitable." [Qur'an 2:228]

It's all about interpretation...

Which brings me onto the point I'm making. As usual it's not about religion, it's about people. Faith is a powerful thing and even the Qur'an, which we are to believe has been handed down exactly word for word since the Prophet Mohammed wrote it, is subject to interpretation. Tenets of faith, any faith, can be interpreted to mean many things. Put a man in a position of power over others and his interpretations become truth. Marry that truth with the faith of a true believer and now you have a mind you can meld into the shape you require.

So let's not misunderstand. Religion does not create violence. Throughout all the ages of man, so called religious wars have been waged to achieve the aims of Man and Not God.

No, what we have is a group of men, using their influence to create pain and destruction for their own ends. Forget any idea of a "Holy War". Don't buy into it. It's nonsense. What we have is a group of criminals, operating on a global scale, using and abusing those who can be persuaded to believe in them.

And they won't get away with it.

Yesterday a number of houses in Leeds and Dewsbury (like 5 minutes from my office!) were cordoned off and searched, based on intelligence the police had received concerning the events in London. The local member of parliament for Dewsbury was on TV. He's a Moslem. He's of the opinion that the Islamic community won't stand for it. In much the same way that the white community rejects racism in it's ranks, so the asian community is rejecting bombers in it's ranks. Where the bombers may have wished to sow seeds of disunity, rather now we see across the country closer ties between communities of varying ethnicity than ever before.

We saw this happen in Northern Ireland. The communities, on both sides of the divide got sick and tired of all the violence. The same will happen on a global scale in time. It will likely take many years and without doubt, the sad truth is we will see more death, but my predictions are for a rosy and harmonious future.