I’m seeing threads from people justifiably worried about recent terrorist attacks and…

[CurlewKate]

..it made me wonder about the time when there were frequent IRA bomb threats and actual bombs in mainland UK. I was working in central London during those years, and I seem to remember us just accepting it as a fact of life-almost an inconvenience. That’s really weird, isn’t it? Was I just young and insensitive and feeling immortal? Or am I misremembering?

I was born in 1983 and my parents used to watch the news every day, we went to London once a year and I was so anxious about travelling there. I was also scared about being abducted and that laser guided missiles (I think this may have been from the gulf war reporting) would blow up the house.

We make a point of not watching the news when our son is around, there is absolutely no point in subjecting him to it.

Misremembering

people were very jumpy but children would be kept as unaware as possible - much easier to do in those days

actually I am thinking that matters - because information channels were limited there wasn’t the continuous awareness, the constant social media chewing the cud about it all - something made the news and that was it

Let's not forget the Birmingham pub bombings in 1974. I was 17, about the same age as many of those killed. 21 young people literally blown to bits, with 182 others receiving life changing injuries. I remember seeing a news reel of a policeman shovelling guts off the pavement. No "trigger warnings" then. It was not far off Christmas and I couldn't stop crying for all those people and families destroyed.

Quick look at the news and there is this. I think same story.

Local Scottish tabloid. From October. Grooming gang jailed.

Grooming gang who sexually exploited 10 vulnerable women caged for 68 years - Daily Record
'

GB news

Kemi Badenoch slams ‘utterly shameful’ Scotland grooming gang failures as GB News exposes major lapses

I have reached my limit on free stories on GB news sorry, so can't check if it's the same.

There are a few articles on GB news about this. Do you not detect any spin here at all. Factual v an agenda ?

Kind of agree and I think there's a bit of missremembering going on.

The IRA sometimes gave warnings, but not always, and sometimes not enough warning was given for the authorities to act.

As a result there was loss of life amongst civilians certainly in Northern Island and on mainland UK (e.g Birmingham).

You learnt to get on with life but in certain occupations (e.g. military) even if on the UK mainland or in Germany you'd be checking under your car first thing in the AM everyday to make sure no-one had left an un wanted present.

Tell that to the people who were in Victoria Station. Or Harrods.

I’m in my 50s, and have always lived and worked in London. It is true that you just carried on when there was a bomb warning, as they were so common. I had a younger colleague a few years ago who spent the day at work crying because she was in a tube station that got evacuated because of a bomb threat. It was just a new thing to her.

Having been in London in the 80s and 90s didn’t stop me being incredibly jumpy after the 2007 bombings though. I was on the tube, and then at Kings Cross that day. There was no mobile signal and. shopkeepers were bringing out TVs to show what was happening. I was very paranoid on the tube for a long time but had to keep using it. I was also jumpy as hell when there was a false alarm about 8 years ago in Oxford Street and a horde of people started running in fear. Did I run? Of course I did.

The unpredictability of threats now makes nervousness a rational response. It’s not that we were massively tougher in the past.

Or Docklands.

It seems like you weren't actually in London at the time, or you wouldn't spout such nonsense.

When you hear claims that the IRA supposedly tried to avoid civilian casualties have a read of this..though I think they apologised post the event..so that's OK then...

https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/baby-killed-by-ira-remembered-30-years-on/38631631.html

Superior about what?

I worked in a public building in a city and I remember inwardly rolling my eyes at having to sit through yet another training course on what to do if you were the person who answered a bomb threat call. Probably the immortality of youth.

Yes really. People do carry on, the Blitz spirit if you like, despite what the right wing press wanting us to live in fear.

A quick search finds this report from last year. I have no idea about it being accurate or not, but hey, it was a quick search.

Who Watches GB News? - Redfield & Wilton Strategies (redfieldandwiltonstrategies.com)

From that report : " When broken down by age, the figures show that 47% of those who say they typically use GB News are aged either 55-64 (21%) or 65+ (26%), while only 9% of those who typically use the channel are aged 18-24."

Similar age demographics to the US Fox news.. Maybe a bit younger ? The exact same target audience though.

Not many of concert going age watching GB news. Worth noting that that 9% of young people is the % of people who watch it. Not an absolute % of young people.

How to politically influence people is a science. I find it ironic that the very people who want the populace to generally dismiss science are the very ones using it so well.

Wow that’s funny

Your second line sounds like you agree with me. People carry on living their daily lives.

So there’s not much in it between now and op’s claim that there’s a difference.

The biggest memory of 9/11 was sending a text message to my dad saying I was going to a friends house after school, and him ringing me saying I had to go straight home, and tell my friends to, as there had been a terrorist attack in New York. It just seemed bizarre as we had all grown up with bomb attacks in London and it was always a case of have a plan B, never before were we told to just go home. (I went to school in London).

I commuted through London Bridge station in the early 1990s. Colleagues of mine were injured in the IRA bomb that went off at rush hour, though luckily no one died. Apparently there had been a vague warning a few minutes earlier but not clear enough or early enough to act on.

I also worked at a company in Germany that was bombed by the Red Army Faction (remember them?) not long after I left.

I don't think many people going about their business in London or other big cities are really living in daily, justifiable fear of a terrorist attack. The people panicking seem to be the ones who live in smaller places but only visit occasionally - perhaps a bit like how the people with the biggest fear of immigration seem to live in the places with very few immigrants.

Tell them what exactly? That the attacks weren't always on civilians and usually came with a pre-emptive warning? This is not inaccurate if that's what you're implying. Possibly you didnt want to miss the chance to have a petty argument on the internet so you decided to disregard the fact that I acknowledged the above wasn't always the case. Or maybe you just didn't bother to read what I said properly..

The OP asked how people felt during the troubles vs now. Having lived through both I answered and gave differences between the two and why I feel the current times are scarier. This does not dismiss the atrocities of the IRA nor the victims.

You are possibly misremembering,or maybe less affected? i was very aware of it - maybe because i was an army child and it was a very real threat, we lived in Germany ,we had a bomb attack at our camp and a corporal from a nearby RAF camp was shot dead along with his baby daughter on a day trip out with his wife,as were 2 Australian tourists in the netherlands . The IRA were active in Europe at the time. Back in the uk i was always very aware - the mainland attacks were so indiscriminat and killed women and children near the areas i live in the north west so it was always a fear .

There is a difference, and I agree with the OP.

Some folk are scared to go out, and it's because of right wing fear mongering.

As an example, consider some of the recent posts here re Southport. Islam radical, the guv are covering it up blah blah. And there is Farage at every incident, all over right wing media, begging the question, " why won't they tell us the race?"

And usually no retraction. The seed is planted, let it grow.

Don't trust the media is the message too. We all see that. It has been compromised by XXX, insert who you want there. We even say MSM now, the BBC is MSM, Or legacy media. The suggestion is clear. Don't trust them, trust us. Something Fox, Breitbart and GB say all the time, trust us, not them. Our facts are what you want to hear, not theirs, not the MSM.

Check this out.

GB News Editorial Charter: A call to bold, fearless Journalism

"At GB News, we are deeply proud to be the People’s Channel, a beacon of hope and truth for the entire nation. We stand for more than just delivering the news - we stand for the values that unite us, inspire us and drive us forward as a nation. We believe in the power of journalism to uplift, to inform and to bridge the divides in our society, bringing light to every corner of Britain."

Hmm. Is that a pledge to accurate and honest reporting, fact checking, assured sources, impartiallity. . Or is that a Party political broadcast.

Oh please. The one "example" you gave was - Omagh. Totally disregarding the chaos wreaked on London. I lived and worked there, at the time. To this day, all the bins in Underground stations and train stations are see-through plastic bags. Because of the IRA planting bombs in the previous metal bins that then also acted as shrapnel. But sure, only civilians in NI were affected!

Oh for god's sake. I mentioned Omagh not because it's in NI but because I think it was the most deadly (note the use of the word 'think' there, please do not jump down my throat if I am mistaken about this). Do I have to list out every single example to appease you? You forgot about the victims of the Birmingham pub attacks amongst others, so let's accuse you of only caring about what happens in London given your example and that you live there (as do I btw). Is this how it works? Ridiculous

It's disingenuous to imply that people weren't scared or anxious back in the 1970s/1980s just because they 'got on with things.' People had no choice. It doesn't mean that there wasn't an underlying current of fear. I grew up during the Troubles in Belfast. Yes, of course we got on with it. We went to school. Went shopping in the city centre. Went to Brownies and Girl Guides. And when older to pubs and clubs. To work. What else were we going to to do? It didn't make us somehow more resilient than today's generation. One day the local police station was blown up and glass rained in on some of the classrooms in my primary school that were facing the the direction of the explosion. It felt like an earthquake. Did I want to go to school next day? No, I bloody well did not. But I was made to go, even though I was terrified. Because that's what we did. We got on with things. But it wasn't some sort of casual eye roll and shrug of the shoulders. It was bloody scary. I witnessed or heard more explosions than I can count, but I was still scared. I wasn't resilient. I was going through the motions until everything was normal again. We all were. I honestly wish we could stop this 'them and us' thing where the younger generation is derided for lack of resilience. It's absolutely pathetic.

Exactly, OP. And where were they in the 2010s, on the moon?

What I object to is your minimsing. And, btw, the IRA supposedly rang in warnings about the Birmingham bombings. That did a lot of good, didn't it?

I was very aware of it too- I worked in a government department and frequently spent time in the HofC but I can’t actually remember being afraid. Watchful, yes. As I said- I was probably just young and cocky. I live in the sticks now, and don’t know how I would feel if I was going into London on a regular basis. That’s what started me wondering.