20th Anniversary of 9/11. Would you feel safe visiting London?

[Lamping]

We’ve booked tickets to a show on that date, tickets to go on the London eye etc, a nice day out.

My mother has gone to pieces as it’s the 20th anniversary of the terror attack and due to the recent events in Afghanistan she thinks there may be a higher risk of something happening. I hadn’t even thought about it to be honest!

She thinks we should cancel but we’ve spent a lot on tickets and we are looking forward to it.

Now she’s put the idea in my mind I’m worried.

Please tell me she’s being ridiculous!

I’ll be on an airplane on 9/11
Can’t live your life in fear

Don't let the bastards win. They want you to live in fear, they love the fact they make so many people scared almost as much as they love setting off a bomb or going on a stabbing spree.

The 20th anniversary of 9/11 doesn't make an attack more likely. Islamists are constantly looking for where they can next attack, they will not save up their activities for a "special occasion" because the longer an attack is planned, the more likely they will be intercepted.

Terror threats are being intercepted constantly, you just don't always know about it.

^^
This! You’ll kick yourself if you don’t go.

I live in London and haven't given this a single thought. Same in the 80s and 90s when the IRA were bombing London and other cities. Your mother is being daft.

you know millions of people live in london, right?

Even if the chance of something happening on september 11th was a hundred times likelier than on september 10th and september 12th, that chance is still minuscule and should not dictate whether or not your plans change.

However, if you are one of those "London is so unsafe!!!" people then please, for the sake of us who live here, stay away.

What’s different this year? Would she feel the same on the 5th or 10th or last tsar or just because it’s the 20th anniversary- life goes on. These people want to stop us living our lives and I refuse to. London will be lovely and I hope you enjoy your break

Lol, I won’t be ‘visiting London’ on 9/11. I live here. Where does your mother think I should go, exactly?

It's easy to make fun of people who are anxious about this sort of thing, but it's not helpful in anyway.

Lamping I'd reassure your mother with the same message as some of the more helpful posters that terrorists are always plotting and the security services foil far more plots than happen.

Living in constant fear of terrorists gives them victory, living a sensibly risk managed life is far more enjoyable. It's not like you've booked for a scenic tour of Damascus or Kabul, you're venturing to the capital of the UK where there are already overwhelming numbers of security forces if you include the soldiers barracked there. I honestly think the anniversary means nothing extraordinary in terms of threat, especially in London.

Aside from anything else, in London 9/11 is the 9th of November, when nothing happened in London, just like nothing happened on the 11th September.

On 7/7, when 52 people died, around 8.5 million people went unscathed.

My parents remembered the Blitz. I remember the IRA. I heard one bomb go off and was shouted at by a policeman to stay on a tube train because of another. Can't say I was ever scared of the IRA. The big lorries and the West Ham fans were much more scary.

I live in central London, so I'll be spending the day hiding under my bed with a knife in my hand. Just in case.

Tell her you'll just go by yourselves?

@WTFisNext

It's easy to make fun of people who are anxious about this sort of thing, but it's not helpful in anyway.

Lamping I'd reassure your mother with the same message as some of the more helpful posters that terrorists are always plotting and the security services foil far more plots than happen.

Living in constant fear of terrorists gives them victory, living a sensibly risk managed life is far more enjoyable. It's not like you've booked for a scenic tour of Damascus or Kabul, you're venturing to the capital of the UK where there are already overwhelming numbers of security forces if you include the soldiers barracked there. I honestly think the anniversary means nothing extraordinary in terms of threat, especially in London.

I don’t think people are trying to be ‘helpful’. They’re pointing out that the OP’s mother is being ridiculous and pretty self-indulgent.

I’ve been in both New York and Canada while it’s been the anniversary of 9/11. Not sure why I wouldn’t feel as safe as normal to be honest. I don’t think anniversaries mean a risk of terror attacks more than any other time tbh but it’s up to her I guess.

Wouldn't bother me in the slightest

It would bother me OP, it would definitely be something that would enter my head. However, it wouldn't stop me from going. I remember about 4 years ago, my anxiety was very bad and unmanaged and I was in an airport in France and about to board a plane. I seen this man who to me was acting so suspiciously, but my mum etc told me I was being paranoid. So I went on the plane and...nothing happened. Imagine I had decided I couldn't get on because to me one person was acting suspiciously, I'd be stuck in France and it would have cost me money I couldn't afford. Sometimes you just have to get on with things even if you don't know or are scared of the outcome.

I'm saying that, I get where your mum is coming from it is 100 percent a thought in my head and a discussion I've had with many the past few weeks wondering if there will be an attack. I don't think there will be.