#04 London

I've never really been one for birthday parties. I had one when I was about five or six, with all my new friends from playgroup and the first year of school invited. Ben Telfer was probably there. We had a clown and jelly and cakes and party hats; unfortunately we also had one of my relatives filming the whole thing. Looking back it's incredibly embarrassing, especially the part where I pretend to be a car, and I get 'washed' with a comedy over-sized feather duster. Cringe.

Other than that, I’ve never really done anything major for my birthdays since. All the other people in my class would have house parties, or football parties, or bowling parties, but I can’t really remember making that much of a deal about my own birthday. Which probably explains why I was so excited about going to the Science Museum for my tenth birthday.

I never went. Days before the day my dad had booked off work to take me, the IRA exploded a bomb in London. I don’t remember much else – where the bomb was, how many (if any) were killed, why it had happened. But I do remember seeing one image: the blackened aftermath of an explosion next to a seemingly unscathed bright red post-box. It didn’t mean much to me then, other than that the trip was cancelled. To this day, my dad owes me a trip to the Science Museum.


Watching terrorist attacks on television means nothing. You see the pictures, you hear the sirens, but it means nothing. Who are those bleeding people? People you’ve never met, who don’t live in your country, who don’t speak your language. It sounds shallow, but it’s true: you switch off the TV and the problem isn’t there anymore: you can continue with your own, sheltered life.

Then it happens in London. For a while, watching the coverage on the 24-hour news channels didn’t affect me at all. There have been so many programmes that show terrorist attacks in London – all fictional of course – but their use of the proper graphics and real presenters meant that it was just like watching a drama. You could have been forgiven for thinking it was just another drama. But then you change channel, or go online, or switch on the radio: there is no escaping reality. I’ve been to that railway station: those aren’t computer graphics; that’s real blood; those people are innocent.

It’s difficult to write much more without dipping into so many other issues. The simple fact remains: terrorism is the most frightening thing in the world. Because they can attack us, wherever we are and whatever we are doing, but who do we attack in return? The answer is simple: we attack their “ideal”. We don’t give up. We get back on the tube. We go back to London. Yes it’s dangerous. Yes there’s a threat. But there always was, and there always will be. It’s a sad fact of life that wherever we go, we’ll always be looking out for suspect packages and abandoned bags. But don’t let them win by staying at home. Follow the example set by the tramp that sleeps outside King's Cross station: he was back at work today.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone:

"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.

I say to those who planned this dreadful attack, whether they are still in London in hiding, or if they are abroad: watch next week as we bury our dead, and mourn them.

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."

Entry to the Science Museum is free.