Friday, July 08, 2005

THE DAY AFTER

We go on.

We have to. You cannot spend the rest of your life living in fear. You do learn to cope. Those of us who lived through the 80s and 90s, when the IRA London bombing campaign was at its height, coped.

It isn’t easy. There are constant reminders of the state of security. Frequent false alarms. Packages left on train platforms. Telephone threats. Hoaxes.

Today started slowly. Trains into London were much less busy than usual, even accounting for it being a Friday in July. Victoria station, whilst not quite a ghost town, was hardly the bustling hub of norm.

The District Line was busy, but that was probably a spill over from the closed lines.

Around my office, the roads and pavements were still. Since 9:00am it’s picked up a bit. Seeing buses crawl along the Strand is kind of spooky. I found myself looking for suspicious movements on board. But, there were few passengers.

There has been a bit frustrating lack of additional information on what happened yesterday. The only news being reported is people’s eyewitness accounts and the casualty toll. I expect there will be police briefings soon to catch the evening news bulletins.

Still no pictures from the train blasts (thankfully?). Who knows, there may still be dead on one of the trains in the deep level tunnel.

The mood is a sense of shock, but also of resolve. The guy in my local coffee shop was defiant.

Unfortunately, I came across the first evidence of hate postings this morning on another blog. I won’t give them the benefit of publicity.

The kindness of strangers has been evident, particularly in chat rooms etc.

Everywhere the police presence is greater. At every platform this morning, I saw at least two policemen. There's probably little that they can do. Their presence is symbolic.

As I type these last words, two mounted police clip-clop by for the third time.

Here's hoping it is a trouble free return to home tonight. I'm not looking forward to travelling on a deep level tube.

:: Posted by pete @ 13:51