Terrorist Threat
Terrorist Threat
As my wife and I are going to London next week, we feel a bit anxious, but we'll go nevertheless. Don't let them bastards frighten you. The Luftwaffe could not do it, the IRA could not do it. I think that the police have to find the culprits, and the justice to hit them right, as high as the law allows. Et vive Londres !
-
andy at handiwork
- Posts: 4113
- Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:40 am
Re: Terrorist Threat
During all the previous times of threat you mention, you were probably more likely to get run over crossing the road, killed in a train crash, or collide with a vehical coming the other way. And I've lived in London for 30 years.
Re: Terrorist Threat
Sure the IRA was not a daily threat, but you're probably much too young to remember what happened during World War II, especially in 1940, when German planes kept bombing London (and others cities, like Coventry), almost every day. But, amidst this havoc, the Londoners did not panic.
-
andy at handiwork
- Posts: 4113
- Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:40 am
Re: Terrorist Threat
I may a bit too too young, though that does not make me unaware of the history. It was bad in 1940. But after about late 1943, to cover the D-Day preparations, it was a lucky German plane that got into English airspace. V bombs were an irritation but as we normally forget other places were a lot worse hit. I think more V2s fell on Antwerp than London. And as harsh as the Blitz was, fewer people died here as a result of German bombing in the whole war than in some single 1000+ bomber raids on Hamburg, Nuremburg, Berlin. Strangely nobody in authority here seemed to think that as our resolve wasn't broken, why should there's have been.
It might seem obvious, but things are very different from the days of the Blitz, 66 years ago. As different as the first WW attitudes were to 2nd WW attitudes. Social cohesion was much stronger in 1940, an obvious threat was 20 miles away across the channel. Any night in 1940/1 you could die in your house. However bad we imagine our present problems from a small, but important, domestic threat, it is not as bad as then. I say small because to all intents and purposes it is. And it is important not to let it get out of proportion. It is not a trivialisation to point out that more people have died in road traffic incidents this year than from domestic terrorism in the past 10. Why do the terrorists job by panicing and over-reacting?
So I would say come to London, feel safe, just watch out crossing the road.
It might seem obvious, but things are very different from the days of the Blitz, 66 years ago. As different as the first WW attitudes were to 2nd WW attitudes. Social cohesion was much stronger in 1940, an obvious threat was 20 miles away across the channel. Any night in 1940/1 you could die in your house. However bad we imagine our present problems from a small, but important, domestic threat, it is not as bad as then. I say small because to all intents and purposes it is. And it is important not to let it get out of proportion. It is not a trivialisation to point out that more people have died in road traffic incidents this year than from domestic terrorism in the past 10. Why do the terrorists job by panicing and over-reacting?
So I would say come to London, feel safe, just watch out crossing the road.