Was woken up on Thursday morning by a text message from a London based friend: “Just in case you were worried, we’re all fine” which was a little odd as I wasn’t worried. Made some breakfast, checked emails, clicked over to a news site… Ah.
Watched the news for a while, leaving it on in the background as I painted and, since I have nothing really to add at this moment about things that actually matter, that’s what I’m going to write about. Journalists and the orgainsations they work for really are a form of evil.
As serious events are unfolding all they can do is report and, truth be told, they do a good job of that. At least the BBC do – I didn’t bother with any other TV news stations. The information was unfiltered, police briefings given in full, speeches unedited for sound-bites. It was all very raw and allowed those who knew what was going on to communicate what facts they had and distinguish them from speculation and rumour.
At this stage I was thinking how calm and rational everything was, given the circumstances. It struck me that if the best response to a terrorist attack is downright refusal not to be terrorised, to pick up the pieces and get on with your live as best you can, then London appeared to be doing just that. Indeed, the one of the main messages being given out were how people should deal with getting home with the somewhat incredible news that the tube would be running pretty normally by the next morning. They can bomb us as much as they like but we’ll not be swayed from continuing our normal lives.
Of course this madness could not be allowed to continue. The facts had to be turned into a story. Any rumour that could be construed to be really scary was massaged into a qualified fact, language was tweaked from straight reportage to mild hysteria. You could feel the sigh of “finally” as Jack Straw said the bombings bore all the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda attack, neglecting to mention that they also bore all the hallmarks of any number of terrorist bombings. Yes, it probably was perpetrated by people related to or inspired by al-Qaeda, but nothing is conclusive. And so on and so on.
By the end of the day the TV news was on hysteria overload. With no additional news to broadcast they resorted to filtering it into a nightmare story with shock-horror headlines and a paranoid tone. In other words, they did their level best to terrorise people. Nice one, guys and gals.
If I was still living in London, I like to think I’d be using public transport and existing in London exactly as I always did. Not only are the odds of getting caught up in something like this astronomically large but I refuse to be terrorised by (what appears to be) religious nutters. Fuck you all.
In my little world, while as far as I can tell everyone I know is fine, I was affected by the bombings. I haven’t been able to send a text message since Thursday lunchtime. And if that’s the sum of my troubles then I’m endlessly grateful. [Later: turns out I'd just run out of credit and my phone doesn't have the UI to inform me of this - goes to show you shouldn't jump to conclusions in events like these...]
They clearly heard that you are now in the Birmingham area.
My main beef with the progression from fact-reporting to story throughout thursday was that once the reporters got a grip of the situation all they could do was try and write feeble memorable intros.
“This morning Londoners woke up as normal and ate their breakfast, but all that was about to change”
and the like. Also Sky News had a banner saying LONDON UNDER ATTACK.
I couldn’t stomach a lot of the BBC coverage, so I flicked around for most of the day avoiding the faux-literary bits of reporting and hunting for new facts. ITN probably did the best job of keeping a lid on the hysteria.
Everyone I know in London is carrying on as though it didn’t happen. I don’t mean that they’re blocking it out or anything like that, but we’re all still using public transport and living normal lives. I always did after IRA bombings, too…
Like you give a crap. First off, I lived through the IRA and I’ll survive this bunch of hate filled acolytes.
I’m alive and well and far more belligerent than is really necessary. Bring on the hate, I repel it with a genuine love and affection for London, Wander through Soho meeting people from every nation and buying records from everyone’s dustbin and you’ll see what I mean. It’s a marvellous twisted multi cultural charitable friendly insane sweaty hideous arrogant flesh eating beast of a city and I can indulge any craziness that enters my head, Like you give a crap. I’m alive and well and far more belligerent than is really necessary and let me tell you my lie hasn’t changed in any significant way.