"I want to say one thing specifically to the world today. This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful. It was not aimed at Presidents or Prime Ministers. It was aimed at ordinary, working-class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew, young and old. It was an indiscriminate attempt to slaughter, irrespective of any considerations for age, for class, for religion, or whatever.
"That isn't an ideology, it isn't even a perverted faith - it is just an indiscriminate attempt at mass murder and we know what the objective is. They seek to divide Londoners. They seek to turn Londoners against each other. I said yesterday to the International Olympic Committee, that the city of London is the greatest in the world, because everybody lives side by side in harmony. Londoners will not be divided by this cowardly attack. They will stand together in solidarity alongside those who have been injured and those who have been bereaved and that is why I'm proud to be the mayor of that city.
"Finally, I wish to speak directly to those who came to London today to take life. I know that you personally do not fear giving up your own life in order to take others - that is why you are so dangerous. But I know you fear that you may fail in your long-term objective to destroy our free society and I can show you why you will fail.
"In the days that follow look at our airports, look at our sea ports and look at our railway stations and, even after your cowardly attack, you will see that people from the rest of Britain, people from around the world will arrive in London to become Londoners and to fulfil their dreams and achieve their potential.
"They choose to come to London, as so many have come before because they come to be free, they come to live the life they choose, they come to be able to be themselves. They flee you because you tell them how they should live. They don't want that and nothing you do, however many of us you kill, will stop that flight to our city where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another. Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail."
Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London , 7 July 2005
Friday, July 08, 2005
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9 comments:
While I can be pretty cynical at times, as some of you may know, genuine commiserations if anyone has been personally affected by the bombs. Otherwise, can we be spared these trite homilies and reminiscences? I understood the whole point of a blog was to present independent points of view. I can read this kind of stuff in the Express (or at least, I could if I wanted to).
El Guerro
Yeah you are pretty cynical. You should read the Daily Express.
El G. - Blank off mate.
Livingstone's statement was a good one.
And I don't think there's anything terribly trite been written here.
But then I spent the first few hours of my day yesterday explaining to people who have moved to London since the late 90s that no I wasn't scared and no I didn't feel panicked. Pace Nick's post.
Though after I'd emailed a few people to check they were OK and found that half of them were in buildings they'd been told to stay in with the blinds down I didn't feel quite so blase. Maybe the panicking incomers were starting to get to me.
Then I spent the afternoon wondering whom I hadn't heard from like everybody else and trying to get hold of people, in between the emails and calls - once the mobile networks came up again - from other people checking that I was OK.
El G without wishing to come over all 9/11 we were all personally affected by these bombs. Some of us missed them by minutes, while others of us never use those stations but I don't know a single person who doesn't know not one but many people that do, every day.
So go boil your head.
Ditto - El Grouch
For what it's worth I saw KL, a politician for whom I don't have a great deal of time, deliver that speech live: emotionally and seemingly unscripted. Probably the most moving, relevant and heartfelt political oratory I've ever witnessed.
But maybe you had to be there: I was fortunate enough to miss the Picadilly Line bomb by 20 mins, while one of our mutual friends, El G, was running late and evacuated onto the injured-strewn concourse at Kings Cross.
Maybe time to stop grouching and start contributing?
Oooh deary me, touched a nerve there. Why?
Go boil your head? Do you feel that's a very apt comment?
Nothing terribly trite? Are you serious?
As I said, genuine commiserations to people who were personally affected. Otherwise, read what Vonnegut says about granfalloons. Should I care more about these bombs because they were in this country and not that, because the victims spoke this language and not that, because their skin was coloured this way and not that?
I'm possibly more sympathetic/empathetic than many of you realise. And all this stuff coming in the same week as postings on this site of a photo and accompanying comments about comedy arabs, I won't be lectured to about sensitivity.
Simon
It's called misreading the mood Simon, and the photo and the lighthearted comments came before tghe bombings.
That "comedy arab" Simon, is Gordon.
Before or after, what difference? Either you think joking about terrorism is funny, or you don't. Is it the time difference - a decade after is OK, a day after you have to be pompous? Where precisely is the time line?
I really don't understand why you are all taking my comments so much to heart. They were about the reporting of an event, not the event itself. As I said, I would like to see personal commentary on this type of site. Being outside the country, I want to know what YOU are thinking and feeling back there. I can guess at what Mr Tony, Our Ken et al are saying. For instance, coming a day after Mr Tony was promising the tightest security possible for the games, don't you feel a little let down? (to put it mildly)? It's precisely this pulling-together/ Blitz-spirit/we're the greatest country in the world siege mentality that perpetuates events like this. Lets have a bit of dissension.
If anybody felt offended, I'm sorry. But I honestly don't know why, unless you saw my comments as a critique of your writing style, which I think would be rather inappropriate. Rather than repeat myself, I'll just quote Joy Division
Endless talking.
Life rebuilding.
Simon
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