'We find strength in being united'
Today's Scotland on Sunday. Featuring Danny, Jacqui, Hamish and Holly. Cheers Brian.
''The refusal to slip meekly into a role is amply demonstrated by the vocal campaign for an inquiry. The blogs alternate inspiring accounts of personal courage with withering attacks on the politicians who refuse to look more closely into a disaster that changed their lives.
"There has been so far one limited investigation of some of the facts via the London Assembly, and they turned up a hell of a lot of stuff," North told Scotland on Sunday. "However, the government so far has produced two papers that contradict each other and, to many people, raise as many questions as they answer.
"This debate doesn't belong to politicians and it doesn't belong to spooks. It belongs to every ordinary man, woman or child. We all have a big stake in this question about freedom and fear. I personally believe a good way to get this started as a debate is to have an independent inquiry into how the first suicide bombings in western Europe happened."
It may be that only the rediscovered trauma of the anniversary finally delivers the momentum that the survivors require.
Their triumph is that they are using their extraordinary experience to further the public good. "I'm an ordinary person; my train blew up," North added. "That's the whole damn point."
"I'm privileged. When my train blew up, hundreds of people held hands and shouted 'stop panicking'. I do have a great deal of hope for the future of the human race. Having said that, I f***ing hate getting on trains.
"Every time I get on a train I look at everybody in case they may be suicide bombers. But I know that, if the lights go out, people will hold hands and help each other every time."
Also, a piece on the possibilty of an anniversary attack. Al Qaeda ''don't do anniversaries'', I was told. My money is on July 11th, and also on a key date in the Crevice trial (the terror trial regarding a fertilier bomb plot which continue sat the Old Bailey). 7/7 was likely chosen as a date at the beginning of the Abu Hamza trial.
For the next fortnight, I'm using my bonus to pay for cabs to work. Can't do the tube at the moment, weather the same, overcrowding the same, am shattered and jumpy and weepy and have too much on to put myself through the adrenalin surge of a remembered and re-experienced 'war zone' every day on my commute to work. It takes me an hour to calm down after a bad one; not great when you have client meetings and deadlines to hit. The anniversay effect, maybe. Hope it gets better in time.
Minsters and Prime Ministers, who tell us to ''carry on as normal'', who are driven to work in limousines and spend their day in Parliament safely behind police with guns and concrete security bollards, should try getting a crowded Piccadilly line to work for a change. Bang, screams, choking, fear. Flashback, remember, try to forget. Get off train, walk to work, hide in toilet, retch, wipe away cold sweat, reapply lipstick. Every damn morning. Then sit at my desk and tell colleagues, ''Sorry I'm late. Problems on the tube again''.
''The refusal to slip meekly into a role is amply demonstrated by the vocal campaign for an inquiry. The blogs alternate inspiring accounts of personal courage with withering attacks on the politicians who refuse to look more closely into a disaster that changed their lives.
"There has been so far one limited investigation of some of the facts via the London Assembly, and they turned up a hell of a lot of stuff," North told Scotland on Sunday. "However, the government so far has produced two papers that contradict each other and, to many people, raise as many questions as they answer.
"This debate doesn't belong to politicians and it doesn't belong to spooks. It belongs to every ordinary man, woman or child. We all have a big stake in this question about freedom and fear. I personally believe a good way to get this started as a debate is to have an independent inquiry into how the first suicide bombings in western Europe happened."
It may be that only the rediscovered trauma of the anniversary finally delivers the momentum that the survivors require.
Their triumph is that they are using their extraordinary experience to further the public good. "I'm an ordinary person; my train blew up," North added. "That's the whole damn point."
"I'm privileged. When my train blew up, hundreds of people held hands and shouted 'stop panicking'. I do have a great deal of hope for the future of the human race. Having said that, I f***ing hate getting on trains.
"Every time I get on a train I look at everybody in case they may be suicide bombers. But I know that, if the lights go out, people will hold hands and help each other every time."
Also, a piece on the possibilty of an anniversary attack. Al Qaeda ''don't do anniversaries'', I was told. My money is on July 11th, and also on a key date in the Crevice trial (the terror trial regarding a fertilier bomb plot which continue sat the Old Bailey). 7/7 was likely chosen as a date at the beginning of the Abu Hamza trial.
For the next fortnight, I'm using my bonus to pay for cabs to work. Can't do the tube at the moment, weather the same, overcrowding the same, am shattered and jumpy and weepy and have too much on to put myself through the adrenalin surge of a remembered and re-experienced 'war zone' every day on my commute to work. It takes me an hour to calm down after a bad one; not great when you have client meetings and deadlines to hit. The anniversay effect, maybe. Hope it gets better in time.
Minsters and Prime Ministers, who tell us to ''carry on as normal'', who are driven to work in limousines and spend their day in Parliament safely behind police with guns and concrete security bollards, should try getting a crowded Piccadilly line to work for a change. Bang, screams, choking, fear. Flashback, remember, try to forget. Get off train, walk to work, hide in toilet, retch, wipe away cold sweat, reapply lipstick. Every damn morning. Then sit at my desk and tell colleagues, ''Sorry I'm late. Problems on the tube again''.
posted by Rachel at 8:12 am
oops...bumblebee seems to have been quoted under my name...sorry BB.....nice article though xx