Friday, July 8, 2005

The day after...

Before I begin, here is a letter to the terrorists from London.

The blame on Muslims has begun. Islamist were accused of yesterday's bombing of our beautiful city. But let's not be too hasty. There is yet to be any proof. The claims done by a previously unknown group should not be treated seriously...yet. London had it coming. Al-Qaeda or not, American funded IRA terrorists or not, terrorists has done London before and would do London again. And we will rise. We will. And we are.

I was watching the telly last night, many programmes were featuring talking heads playing the blame game. There was the Israeli's spokesperson: "I told you so" and the anti-war spokesperson: "I told you so" and George Galloway (whom I did not listen to, since I have heard his rants many times - I am not saying he is wrong, but his way of conveying the message is wrong).

On BBC One's This Week, Michael Portillo opinionated that "suicide bombers are more dangerous than nuclear weapons", while a strongly accented former Clinton advisor(?) blurted that "we are not winning". Before that on BBC Two, Newsnight was on. Jeremy Paxman was grilling the Spanish shadow home secretary (from the former government who blamed ETA for the Madrid bombing) on the similarity of yesterday's events to the train bombs in Madrid over a year ago.

You could see why I grew bored with the bunch of talking heads. Salvation arrived when BBC Two broadcasted a repeat of BBC Four's
The Late Edition. Marcus Brigstocke is a genius!

The most unlikely statement I heard today was Charles Clarke admitting (yes, you heard that right - Charles Clarke admitting to something!) that his stupid ID card plan for Britain would not have stopped the terrorist although as a politician he did spin his statements a little bit.

The worst that can come out of yesterday's tragedy is people exploiting it. Yes, I am talking about the political vultures now circling over White Hall thinking how best it is to implement new laws to curb our civil liberties. Then there are the mindless thugs that run the BNP and Veritas, who would see no hesitant in using this attack as an excuse for their anti-asylum seekers and anti-Arabs cause. Patriot Act UK anyone?

That and the whole G8 summit on climate change and poverty history (Geldof is an idiot) thingy. Who wants to bet Bush would manage to haggle his way into turning this year's summit into a personal crusade against terrorist ("I told you so")? No matter. Fuck the terrorists for turning their attention away from poverty and pollution. And our celebration at winning the 2012 bid.

Back to the media, BBC's coverage yesterday morning was shoddy at best, particularly in the early moments of the tragedy. Even The Guardian was faster! And they don't operate a 24 hours news channel! After the whole David Kelly affair the BBC seem to be a little reluctant to call. I know they have a responsibility not to speculate but darn, get your reporters out there! Quick! By 1pm the coverage has improved dramatically and kudos to BBC Radio London for keeping me updated throughout the afternoon. Check out BBC London as well.

Update to my previous post on London Underground, check out London Underground Tube Diary for more information by Annie, a Tube blogger.

Now before we all forget:

BBC News G8 coverage

2 comments:

HardiJ said...

I may not really be able to call myself as a Londoner (am only going up to London most weekends or once a month for work related matter) but am proud to say that they (no matter whether they are the key public sector staff or the civilians - am not saying about Blair, sadly!) has done a real great job! their professionalism and calmness in dealing with this terrible ordeal is something that everyone should look up for!

London rise! don't let those bastard bring you down!

Jon Choo said...

Kyels, we will rise.

Jen, everyone is a Londoner today!