My thoughts are with the people  in London

Yes Stanley mine too. But will it stop at london or should we all be worried.
I guess we should.

Indeed Stanley :(

I just wonder what is next :( The security services have been reported  to have said not to have clue :(

I for one am not ok and will carry on with fear :) Sorry but I am been honest here. I am not one of Blairs babes who agrees with we are NOT running scared. This is two weeks after and although not as devastating so what ? What next ? Sorry but I do feel it is the start of something very big :(

Lucy
xx

Im scared too Lucy, I have a dad who works for the underground who wont use it unless absolutely necessary (he walks from waterloo to his office) and an OH who works in London alot and has to use the underground.  Both have said that when using the underground they are very aware of asians and my dad said he was getting ready to floor a bloke sat next to him because he was fiddling with his rucksack, I know it sounds racist but people arent going to be able to help it :(

Anybody who now has a ruck sac with Asian/middle east looks will be a suspect :(

Lucy
x

ditto lucy. i was meant to be going up to the Stubbs exhibition next week but wild horses would never get me to london now :(

So what is this 'Business as usual' ? I would be one looking for employment outside of the city :)

Margot would like your opinion as I have said I am being honest :)

Lucy
xx

As you said, Lucy, everyone will be looking at every young Asian-looking man.   Just as only a few years ago, if we heard an Irish accent, all heads would turn and glare.   Okay, there will be some who will look for work outside London - but, believe me, work only 30 miles outside London pays absolute c**p money - and mortgages are so costly, most people will just have to stay working in London - and so, you grow an extra skin, and become rather fatalistic - probably the same as some of my older friends can remember when they lived in London at the end of WWII when the "doodlebugs" rained down on them - if its got your name on it, then you're gone.

One of my friends did retire early - her firm was bombed out of the West End, at the beginning of the '80s, bombed out of the Stock Exchange, the Nat west Tower, Bishopsgate - and then, although her part of Canary Wharf suffered no actual damage in the last bomb blast, when she removed the cover from her computer on the Monday morning, and the screen shattered, she decided that it WAS personal after all.

From my own experience, now, people will be looking hard - as you say - at any young middle-east/indian looking man carrying a rucksack - and I would imagine that an awful lot of young men like this will be having their photo taken on mobile phones from now on - sometimes blatently openly, sometimes surreptitiously.   In fact, I feel sorry for every young asian/indian/middle east man at the moment - they themselves will be feeling anxious and aware of the fact that everyone suspects that he might be the next bomber.   There are an awful lot of station closures at the moment - maybe only for half an hour - but heaven help you if you leave your rucksak anywhere - it's going to be picked up as a suspect package, and stations are being evacuated by a pair of trainers in a bag!    This is all that people can do - be watchful.    At the moment, of course, people are panicing - and who's to say that in these circumstances that we wouldn't - I'd like to hope that I'd be calm - but when push comes to shove - who knows how we would behave?

All large firms - and most of the middle-sized firms - have contingency plans, laid down and honed over the past few years - and of course, sharpened by 9-11.    Not only do companies have fire alarm exercises, some also have bomb evacuation exercises, and also have alternative office space sitting, waiting, ready for such emergencies, with call-down procedures - ie - personnel with home computers with internet links will already be registered - and arrangements will be in place for such people to work from home for anything up to 3 weeks - key personnel coming into Central London after 48 hrs, afte 5 days, possibly 25% of the staff, and so on.   

I suppose its how things worked during the war.   I know that once I had established, in my own mind, what I would do, I then had to put the worry of bombs to the back of my mind, and not let it take over my life - after all, in the general scheme of things, I'm more likely to win the lottery than be blown up in a bomb blast.    However, now I'm away, I do admit to worrying like hell about friends who are of course, still at work, and of course my No 2 son, Noj, who will be working in London until the end of August.

And, as my Granny used to say - "if ye're tae be run ower by a bus, then ye'll nae droon!"

Love
Margot