School Trip to London EYE

[WhatwouldYOUdotoo]

We live near London, and we visit London on a frequent basis.

We usually go at the weekend, and go on short tube journeys, use the bus to get round etc etc etc.

So I am not afraid of going to London.

But DD school trip is making me feel VERY ANXIOUS.

Its on a week day, and on a Friday, by train and tube into London then a trip to the London Eye.

I would prefer it if they went by coach. I would prefer it if they didnt go on a Friday, I would prefer it - if they were not visiting the Eye.

I know life goes on, I know we shouldnt change our habits due to terrorists, I know all that, I have said I am happy for her to go, but at the same time,

We are at heightened risk,

The people in the KNOW say we WILL BE ATTACKED not IF.

The London EYE has been mentioned several times as KEY target.....

I am worried about them being on the tube and train.

I feel very anxious and worried about this.

I know the chances of her being killed in a coach crash are higher but I am nervous....why court danger?
I have lost people close to me very suddenly with no warning...I know life hangs by a thread.

Oh good, I'm glad you've got something positive from posting

I work in a building that has been declared a terrorist target and arrive there from a mainland station every day at 8.45 and leave at 5. I would feel exactly the same as the OP and worry about it while my DC were on the trip. Maybe the people that say it's unreasonable to feel like that don't experience the feeling of being a possible target every day, see the security, see the twitchiness and hear their colleagues joke daily about "phew I made it through the station alive"

Sadly that is the atmosphere in London these days even though everyone knows the chances are statistically minimal. Doesn't stop people coming to work or going out in London but you can't say tnem thinking about it is weird or unreasonable. it's a perfectly normal response to world events and the times we are living in in my opinion.

There didnt used to be in my life time, any terrorist risk, but now there is a real high threat.

But there has been a terrorist risk for decades. Just look at 1990-2001, which I assume comprises a large part of your lifetime:

1990 16 May: Wembley IRA detonated a bomb underneath a minibus killing one soldier and injuring another.
1990 1 June: Lichfield City railway station 1 soldier killed and 2 injured in a shooting by the Provisional IRA.
1990 20 July: IRA detonated a bomb at the London Stock Exchange causing damage to the building. Nobody was injured in the blast.
1990 30 July: Ian Gow MP killed by a car bomb planted by the IRA at his home in Sussex.
1991 7 February: The IRA launched three mortar shells at the rear garden of 10 Downing Street.
1991 18 February: A bomb exploded at Victoria Station. One man killed and 38 people injured.
1992 28 February: A bomb exploded at London Bridge station injuring 29 people.
1992 10 April: Baltic Exchange bombing: . It killed three people.
1992 7 June: Wanted Provisional IRA member Paul Magee opened fire on two unarmed police officers, one died.
1992 25 August: The IRA planted three fire bombs in Shrewsbury..
1992 12 October: A device exploded in the gents' toilet of the Sussex Arms public house in Covent Garden killing one person and injuring four others.
1992 16 November: IRA planted a bomb at the Canary Wharf, but was spotted by security guards. The bomb failed to detonate.
1992 3 December: The IRA exploded two bombs in central Manchester, injuring 65 people.
1993 20 March: Warrington bomb attacks by IRA. The first attack, on a gasworks, created a huge fireball but no casualties, but the second attack on Bridge Street killed two children and injured many other people.
1993 24 April: IRA's Bishopsgate bomb. It killed one person and injured over 40 people.
1994 July: A car-bomb outside the Israeli embassy in London injured fourteen.
1994 27 July: A car-bomb outside Balfour House in London, home to a Jewish charity, injuring five.
1994 13 August: 2.5 lbs of Semtex packed into a bicycle left outside Woolworths in Bognor Regis, exploded damaging 15 shops. A similar bomb found in nearby Brighton.
1996 9 February: The IRA bombed the South Quay area of London, killing two people.
1996 15 February: A 5 lb bomb placed in a telephone box disarmed by Police on the Charing Cross Road.
1996 18 February: An improvised high explosive device detonated prematurely on a bus travelling along Aldwych in central London, killing the IRA operative transporting the device and injuring eight others.
1996 15 June: The Manchester bombing when the IRA detonated a 1500 kg bomb which heavily damaged the Arndale shopping centre and injured 206 people.
1997 March: The IRA exploded two bombs in relay boxes near Wilmslow railway station.
1999 17 April, 24 April, 30 April: David Copeland set off three nail bombs in London targeting the black, Bangladeshi and gay communities respectively, killing 3 and injuring 129.
2000 1 June: Real IRA bomb on Hammersmith Bridge, London.
2000 20 September: Real IRA fired an RPG-22 at the MI6 HQ in London.
2001 4 March: Real IRA detonated a car bomb outside the BBC's main news centre in London.
2001 16 April: Hendon post office bombed by the Real IRA.
2001 6 May: Real IRA detonated a bomb in a London postal sorting office. One person was injured.
2001 3 August: Real IRA bomb explodes in Ealing, West London, injuring seven people.
2001 4 November: Real IRA car bomb in Birmingham.

nikki I understand your worry, we are also using Ferry to calais later in year and I am also concerned about that!

WE ARE STILL GOING, but I am concerned about it and I think have every right to be!

My rational side says people visit the eye every single day, people go to work every single day!
But my irrational side says - there are other places to take the dc and via other means, its not neccasry to have a trip there now.

I can understand

If you took your child you would automatically grab them if anything happened

On a school trip the teacher would grab as many as they can and then do a head check afterwards. By then it could be too late.

However I think the risk at the moment is low

If we all thought like this they would have won without having to do anything! I have two sons, unlil this month bo;th were living in London, going to concerts, using the tube in rush hour every day, and the oldest still is. Saying "don't" is like suggesting women should cover themselves up to avoid molestation. If we modify our way of life at all they will have us all giving up the british way of life in no time at all.

I totally understand your anxiety OP. I have it myself, but like you don't let my dc see it.

My DS was on a school trip to Brussels a week before the bombings - and when I saw footage of the attacks, it did leave me thinking 'what if' and having that horrible stomach lurch. The thought of a school trip being caught up in something like that doesn't bear thinking about.

But then, what good does worrying about such a small statistical likelihood do? We don't think we might be killed in car crash every time we set out on the road - and yet it's a possibility. Etc etc.

DS travels by Tube to London Bridge every day, on his way to work. He has to do it - and he also has to put up with me saying 'please be careful and keep your eyes open!' on a regular basis.

But I wouldn't want to stop him living his life.

How much do you think that having lost people in your life unexpectedly is adding to your anxieties? Just thinking, maybe your anxiety is part of your shock and grief?

My 16 year old is doing a trip to London in June with the school dance department. She really wants to go and yes she will go but it doesn't stop me stressing about her going so far away where I won't be with her if something was to happen. She isn't aware at all about how I feel at all. Dh has laughed at me. But he will be worried while she is away like he always is.

The only time I didn't stress was the Duke of Edinburgh expedition.

I'm London born and bread and was actually on a school trip in central London when the London bombings happened - thankfully no one was hurt and I haven't been affected by it at all.

Just think of all the children who live and go to school in London everyday - many of them travelling through congested areas. IT WILL BE FINE. The trip will be risk assessed to the max.

I'm amazed at people's anxiety towards London on this thread.

There are risks everywhere nowadays and have been for a number of decades. I think there is selective memory about the 90s in London. The IRA threat was real and seriously affected lives. The building I lived into backed on to Judd Street and I remember the ground shaking as the bomb went off, it than transpired that actually I lived opposite an IRA safe house and one of my friends left the pub in Soho moments before the nail bomb went off.

My daughter now attends a school which potentially is a very real terrorist target due to a group of children who attend they practice lockdowns regularly.
Where ever we go and whatever we do there is a potential risk, but crossing the road is riskier. Assessing the risk honestly and taking appropriate actions is the best way forward.
I have talked about it with my DD she knows to run if she can, if not to hide and switch if her mobile phone and if necessary she knows to play dead. She knows the likelihood of needing this advice is very slim, but she also understands we talk and practice for the worst case scenario.

How old is she? Tbh of be more bothered about them getting on and off the tube and changing. Surely the logistics of that when you have to cram on anyway are impossible.

Yes, we soon forget the terrorist threats of the past. I worked as a temp one summer in a building in Scotland where there were soldiers posted too. My first morning's induction was how to check under my car for a car bomb before leaving home in the morning. We regularly had sniffer dogs round the offices.

The heightened terrorist threat now means we need to be more aware - not scared. If you spot someone acting suspiciously, report it. Not ignore it as so many people are in their own wee world on the Tube and wouldn't even make eye contact. If you see a bag unattended, tell someone. If you have genuine concerns about the group of lads down the road who seem to be doing something odd in the kitchen with large quantities of chemicals - phone the Police. Not interfering or being busy bodies or just reporting your neighbour who happens to be Muslim. But acting on genuine worries and concerns is what we should all be doing.

And let's not forget the number of plots which have been foiled by the security services who are doing a superb job.

Going on the ferry to and from Calais, I would be more concerned about seeing the treatment of refugees. We went on holiday to France with my cousin, and her 12 yr old dds found the treatment of some people quite traumatic.

I live and work in Central London. I am terrified since having my DD - before her, I was pretty sanguine about it all.

The one thing you can take from vile disgusting terrorist acts is this: it's never where you think it will be. They will be aiming for something awful and indiscriminate like a packed train or street or shopping centre on a random innocuous day - not the queen's celebrations or Christmas parade or anything obvious. You can't control it, you just have to grit your teeth and trust in our security services.

Dark times. I do fear for the world our children are going to inherit

The terrorists have won if this is how you're going to think and behave.

So, are you letting her go OP

just to be really clear I am JOKING!

Read Augusta's list , all those who think the threat is new. I worked in London at the height of IRA activity. Never occurred to any of us not to go.

I'm back there in a few weeks, by train. Avoiding driving if at all possible now after near death at the hands of a lorry driver on the phone. Had he killed me I doubt it would have made the news.

Yabu.

It makes me a bit sad that people are so scared of London. How do you feel about all of the people who live and work here? IIRC it's somewhere in the region of 8-10 million. Are anxious people just glad it's "them and not us"?

I don't think Londoners are worried and we're here every day. Maybe that's the difference. I remember the IRA era, I remember 7/7, I remember as a child when DM was late to pick me up from school sighing to the TA and saying, "It's probably another bomb threat on the Central" I can laugh about it now but basically this is nothing new.

I work in an incredibly sensitive location. Every week we have fire, bomb and intruder alarm tests. My parents also work in sensitive locations. We also all work in some form of public service. Someone has to do that, to keep the country ticking over. Plus it is the financial centre, even if we have booming cities elsewhere we need people working here at current for the sake of the economy. If my children decided on that career that is based in London I wouldn't be scared. Do we just hope other people will live and work in London so that the rest don't have to?

I may have totally missed the point here It is of course fine and natural to worry, I worry about my DCs being taken to the city farm! But not because of the animals, simply because they're not with me. So YADNBU to be nervous about your child being away from you, but with time that will develop otherwise you won't be able to live life once the DC grow up and leave. As for London, it is scary when we think about potential threats, but as other people have said people are much more likely to die of a road accident than a terrorist attack.

YABU, but I can totally understand why you feel this way. I live and work in London and following the Paris shootings was held on a train a few weeks back whilst armed police ran on to arrest a man (incidentally- his only crime was having one of those umbrellas that look like a samurai sword).

Beforehand, I'd felt anxious. After, I realised that being jumpy, anxious or frightened wouldn't help the situation. The very fact that, between stations, a unit of armed police could be deployed to arrest someone demonstrated the huge degree of coordination thats going on behind the scenes. Central London is incredibly well protected.