to not expect to get murdered this afternoon?

[AFierceBadRabbit]

I live close to Manchester city center.
I need to return a shirt to '&otherstories' and thought I'd nip on train (20 min journey) to do this.
My friend said 'What? No way would I go there at the moment! It's way too soon!' (terrorism)

Really?
I do not want to appear flippant, but am I really risking my life taking a trip to the city? I'm really not sure how to navigate this one.

eh? actually its prob safer now than it would be shes being ridiculous

my dh works in the city about a mile from london bridge he wnt back as normal the next day

FFS, people who work in Manchester have been going in since the day after the attack.
At what point does your friend believe safety will return, perhaps she could inform those of us that live in Manchester? Next week? July? Autumn?

I can understand her fear, but. You can't let it take over your life.

Your friend is a dick. I (along with millions of others) am still working in London. Although some Spanish people I know have just cancelled their visit this month due to terrorist attacks. I did tell them they were more likely to be run over by a bicycle but to no avail.

Yes, she's being ridiculous. I was walking around Manchester city centre extensively in the days following the arena attack. I walked over London Bridge the day before and two days after that attack. The risk of being affected by terrorism is infinitely small.

I went to London for meetings last week without a qualm. Dh was in Paris for meetings the day after Bataclan; and I drove past the turn for Zaventem (Brussels airport) on the day of the bombing, having been there to pick up a friend 12 hours before.

The most dangerous thing I do is drive, especially on Belgian roads. I'm more likely to die in a car accident in Belgium than I am in a terrorist attack in the UK.

I know about seven people who live and work in Manchester and they remain resolutely unmurdered. Funny that.

Everybody deals with things in different ways. If avoiding places makes her feel safer that's up to her.

What a weirdo. What does the passage of time have to do with it? If anything I would have thought it's safer shortly after attack than at any other time.

The houses a couple of streets away from me were evacuated the other week and police were swarming. I walked to the supermarket and back and saw multiple police cars and several brazen drug dealers I work in town, was drinking in town the Monday evening and went to a gig the Tuesday. I have come through it all unscathed.

We're in Manchester. DS is a bit iffy about going to the Trafford Centre, but apparently were fine going into town

With him in attendance though, I think he'd have a minor breakdown if I said I was taking DS on the magic bus and to the shops just us two.

He works in security, it's like having a minder sometimes.

*DH is iffy, not DS. DS is 6 months old so his opinions are largely not taken into account on travel.

I'll check with a friend to be on the safe side, but I've been into town several times since the bomb and remain unmurdered. Your friend is an idiot. Part of getting back to normal and not letting the terrorists win is continuing to use the shops, restaurants etc that rely on our custom. It's your duty to go shopping!

I work in Manchester and travel into Victoria station every day. I'm more concerned about the fight to get a seat on the train home than terrorist activity.

The day after the explosion, the weather was lovely, so Piccadilly Gardens was full of people enjoying the sun, and kids running through the fountains.

I'm going to walk in later. We can get murdered together, OP. Where shall we meet? I'll bring some signs to indicate we are appropriate targets.

Do you know what? I can't stand all this sneering at people who (and I am one of them), feel concerned/anxious about being in high profile, busy areas in light of recent events.

I get that yes, the world needs to keep on turning etc. My dh HAS to go to work in the city centre, my dc HAVE to go to school. But I don't feel inclined to visit busy places right now. I am anxious by nature. Others aren't so much - well good for them! I would however refrain from commenting on the choices of others. Calling her an idiot is rather nasty and unnecessary imo.

Sorry you're feeling anxious, Stumbleine.

I'm naturally an anxious person too - but on the flipside, I really deeply resent the implication that I'm taking an incredible risk by spending time in the city I live, and that if anything happens to me I am partly to blame because I wasn't careful enough.

Not that you're implying that, BTW. Just that it does feel as if the 'ooh you can't possibly go to London/Manchester/Paris/Brussels' brigade are on some level saying that doing so is an unacceptable risk to take. It's not.

Mackerel, I can understand that to have others comment on your own choice to go wherever you please must be very annoying. It's just that it can work both ways, and it isn't nice to feel that people would be thinking 'what an idiot' over the choices I make. I think the tone of some posts on this thread reflects that attitude.

I don't know what the odds are of being involved in a terrorist attack but I do know it is much much more likely to be involved in a car accident.

We all know people killed or injured by cancer, heart attack, stroke, car accident etc. How many of us know someone involved in a terror attack?

You have to be sensible about it. You decide not to go to London, Manchester or any other city - there could be an attack in a quiet country village. You could step outside your front door and a vehicle could mount the pavement and hit you. You could decide never to step outside your front door again and a vehicle could plough into your house and hit you or you could fall down the stairs and seriously injure or even kill yourself

I do sympathise with people who feel anxious, but the difficulty here is that these attitudes can infect a whole society. So I think we all have a responsibility to look at the facts and be logical rather than giving into irrational levels of fear - at least in as much as not foisting our fears onto other people. The OP's friend wasn't simply making a decision for herself - she was telling the OP that she was foolish to go into the city centre. That's stepping over the line, I think.

We are all much more likely to be killed in a car accident than caught up in a terrorist attack - yet we continue to get in our cars.

If you can't override your fears with rational thought - fair enough (as as I said above, it really is understandable as these things have been awful). But I think pushing that onto other people is too much. I would not criticise the OP's friend for not going to a place she felt unsafe - but I do think it's unreasonable for her to tell the OP not to go, when logic, facts and statistics are so clearly not on her side.

ElleMcElle - I completely agree.