I just came back from a week in London and I must say my hat goes off to all the Brits for their "F-you terrorists" attitude.
It was business as usual everywhere - despite two botched bombing attempts in London and one moronic attempt in Glasgow. I guess it's hard to recruit good terrorists these days.
=)
On Thursday Night, a rare evening without rain or hail, I walked for a few hours downtown with a colleague including stays (can you say beer) in both target areas - Piccadilly / Haymarket and Trafalgar - and the streets were bustling with tourists and locals - nobody was fazed by the recent events.
Going back soon - hopefully a little sunshine next time.
It probably helps that their political leaders aren't all like "YOU SHOULD BE AFRAID WE COULD ALL DIE AT ANY TIME AXIS OF EVIL DOOM DOOM". Or at least if they are, they probably aren't as well as the USA's are.
Did you not visit Liverpool on your trip over the big pond SleepingWolf? You missed out there if you didn't Perhaps the next time eh? I'll show you around if I'm in the city at the time.
I was talking about attitudes to "the threat" and "the axis of evil" with a few friends and family the other day and we considered the fact that it is still very much within living memory that we were being heavily bombed during the Blitz in WW2. Life had to go on then as it does now. Perhaps this might explain in some little way the differences in attitude.
I know things are very different now compared to those times, but real life experiences on the street like that are bound to affect attitudes even sixty-odd years later.
Hey Tao
Thanks for the offer - I would love to visit Liverpool. I'm back in September but it is unlikely I'll have time to even visit London. We'll see.
Yep, you guys got bombed pretty bad during WWII and you had to put up with the IRA after that .
Hard to believe these incompetent bastards were MDs...what scumbags.
...not to mention, we've had to suffer a Labour government, Ken Livingstone and his Congestion Charge (where we pay to have more congestion through deliberately mal-synced traffic lights and poorly thought-out one-way circuits), and Spice Girls.
I honestly don't know how we manage to carry on...
You're more likely to be hit by a bus than blown up in one, and I think I share this opinion with every other Londoner. In the end, the only way the terror peddlars win is by peddling terror, and if he was still alive, Hitler would probably be happy to testify as to the sheer bloody-mindedness of Brits in general, let alone Londoners.
There are times when I love my city... when I'm not hating it, that is. I'm glad you enjoyed it, SleepingWolf.
EDIT: I think it should be pointed out that the main reason London and her surrounding environs were so heavily bombed during WWII was as a direct result of Britain deliberately switching to bombing civilian targets in order to draw enemy bombs away from her millitary resources. It worked; as Germany diverted attention to our (evacuated) Capital in response, the British war machine continued to pound along relatively un-scathed. A bit of brutal-but-clever strategy on the part of Churchill, that was certainly no worse than jumping into war in the first place for the sake of Poland, only to leave that same country to be ripped to shreds by the Russians instead.
In all honesty, I can't fear for my life on London's streets when I think about what my government and her allies perpetuate through deliberate ignorance and/or occupation around the globe today. I'd rather be living in a bomb-wary London than <insert random war-torn M.Eastern city here> any day...
quote: White Hawk said:
...not to mention, we've had to suffer a Labour government, Ken Livingstone and his Congestion Charge (where we pay to have more congestion through deliberately mal-synced traffic lights and poorly thought-out one-way circuits), and Spice Girls.
Spice Girls? Now that's scary.
quote:
I honestly don't know how we manage to carry on...You're more likely to be hit by a bus than blown up in one,
I came damn close to being splattered by a double decker on my first trip to London last Sept.
I was in London at the hight of Spice Girl Mania. It was interesting to say the least. You could go 5 feet without seeing a marketing poster, some several stories tall. Never seen anything like it.
Yep, you have to watch your step. I found it really diffucult to get use to traffic coming from the other direction when stepping of the curb.
LOL - I get that when I travel to Europe, constantly having to remind myself to look the wrong way (coz' of course, everybody and the Japs know that we drive on the correct side of the road), but I had a few near misses in Rome...
As for the Spice Girl thing... I think it's starting up again. They've got back together (for a tour, I think) and it seems the reception is still quite warm. Old Spice fans (not 'Old Spice' fans) probably think it's Christmas early...
i went to leeds a three weeks ago and i was amazed on how calm they where/were (i get them mixed up all the time)
the thing that did anoy me was that you wheren't allowed to take fluids on the palne that contained more than 100ml that meant no drinks and stuff, and because i was traveling with handluggage only it meant buying showergel and shaving cream for a few days and leaving half fulls behind again.
other than that it was realy nice escaping the 35-39 degrees Celcius in Austria (we are still waiting for rain)
Not really, but they took all the UK's hair spray and gel supply with them, b*st*rds
The last time I saw Posh on TV I'd have to say she also took most of the UK's Silicone gel as well...i'm not talking about her hair...i'm talking about those melon-like objects sprouting from her chest
So y'all into foo~ sorry, soccer now that the Becks have arrived? I've just heard that Nascar racing in the most watched sport in the USA is that true? I thought Rounders er I mean Baseball was?
posted 07-07-2007 17:08
Perhaps the next time eh? I'll show you around if I'm in the city at the time.
::cell::