feetnotes

i was born, went to school and did much of my growing up in london, and although i've not lived there for many years (nearly a quarter of a century - eek!), i suppose i'll always be in part at heart a londoner.
most of my close relatives, and not a few of my friends live or work (or live and work) in london.

i'm extremely relieved to be able to say all my relations and friends seem to be ok; my sympathies, for what they're worth, go out to those for whom this is, alas, not so.



it may be a reflection upon my age, but it saddens me rather than makes me angry that there are sufficiently ill-educated and brainwashed enough bigots to attempt to use terrorist tactics against anyone; but to attempt to do so against london and londoners is truly stupid.

it didn't work in the seventies, it didn't work in the forties - and i'm not sure it has ever worked since london was a city. queen boudicca (or boadicea, if you're unreformed) was probably the last person to manage - before london was a city - and that's two thousand years ago. london's too big, londoners are too well educated, too well aware, and there are just too many of us/them, for anything that doesn't kill or injure a hell of a lot of us/them to have any great lasting effect - and too bloody-minded, to be terrorised. and i think the same's probably true of every town & city in the country - probably, in "the west"; but london, and londoners, more than anywhere else, maybe.

so, to any would-be terrorists who may be reading this: don't bother trying.

you can hurt some of us, you may kill some of us,
but you can't win through terror tactics:

talk with us.