Suspected suicide bomber shot at Stockwell station.

[cori]

Have just heard an unconfirmed report on the radio. Anyone else?

Well, there is disruption, true, but I think your average suicide bomber might be after a bit more in the way of results than that.

Message withdrawn

No Dior you are not alone. It is sending me neurotic I think and I really want out of London. I have never loved this place particularly, don't want to bring DS up here, and want to move. it might not be safer anywhere else, but I might like living there better.

Dior - well lots of us probably feel jumpy - I know I do, especially on the days when its all been kicking off!

But jumpy is okay

Letting it change your views of others and letting it stop you going about your business is different though!

I thought that in this instance the terrorists are looking for us to back out of Iraq, and to distance ourselves from the US? Not so much for us to be afraid, but for that fear to trigger a political reaction.

if they want disruption they should just force everyone to travel on the northern line

No, don't get me wrong, Dior, jumpy is what I feel too! But I don't think that means anyone has won anything over me. It's just a natural human reaction to bombs going off and people being shot in the head on the northern line...

Ladymuck - don't think so. Al queda existed before Iraq (9/11 was before that).

As I said I'm not sure what its all about in the end - except for something about ridding the world of infidels!

OMG, i'm so cr*p at the geography of the tube, i'd never have posted that last comment if i'd realised the shooting occured on the northern line. I was just trying to make a joke about how appalling it is - mental note to self not to try and be a comedian)

Actually chicagomum I think it was the Victoria line anyway

Not to worry chicagomum, I could see the funny side to your post, there are always delays on the nothern line.

I haven't got a clue on the underground or bus routes either!

phew, hi kid hows dh? doing still at work?

He is on his way home now, should be here in the next 20 minutes or so depending on traffic.

Soapbox, I realise that Al Qaeda had longr-term aims, but wasn't there a website posted with a message on 7 July? Asking UK to withdraw and warning Denmark and Italy to expect the same if they didn't?

Despite all my feelings bout this I still don't think that the gov should do what they are told by these people. If they do it for one group, other groups will do other demands, or they will come up with another... It's a bit like the hostages isn't it? Sad.

I must say on the way home last night at waterloo they were announcing that the only bit of the northern line working was x to y and everyone was scoffing and saying "hmmm no change there then"!

Ah right Ladymuck - I didn't know that

Dh is home

Aloha - thank you for your post to me some million posts back. I know you would never wish to upset me, nor to act in a way which would.

And I for one am sure you are not racist, and even if we are not on quite the same track in this discussion, I would not want to take that personally.

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Who said last week 'there are people who commit these atrocities, and people who do not - that is the only distinction we should be making between peoples'.

THAT seems to me to be the best and strongest way to think and act to defy these extremists. In the context of the desperate need to catch those who DO commit atrocities, I can understand that people are on the lookout for people who 'fit the profile', and I am keen that we the public do all we can to help the police identify any culprits involved.

What I can't quite come to terms with is the difference between looking for suspects, and feeling fear of a rather large group of human beings, especially beyond a first almost reflex response.

Surely anyone sitting in a tube carriage who is made so anxious that they feel they might (however 'politely') get up and leave, should actually be calling the police and evacuating the carriage? If it is a terrorist, you won't be much better off in the next carriage!

I can understand anyone who fears travel in London atm, in case THE bomber (who may well be dressed as a frog for all you know) happens to be on their train. I can understand not being on the tube at all for those reasons. I can understand being out and about anywhere in the country and keeping an observant eye out for people who fit the exact descriptions given. But I can't understand feeling that it is completely justifiable to feel a general sense of fear for a wide group of people like 'asian men' - as some people have felt able to do on this thread. Either it's specific - looking for suspects and raising the alarm if you are concerned, or it's treating a wide range of people as if they are part of the group of people who DO commit atrocities, based loosley on how they look.

Ladymuck, Al queda want the total overthrow to liberal democracy in the West and the imposition of their own brand of 'Muslim' state, as run by the taleban.

Iraq is a handy 'peg', an excuse.

Well, fwiw I thought that the change of government in Spain after the Madrid bombings was a victory for Al Qaeda.

True

I'm not sure of the legality of a shoot to kill policy on the streets.

There was a scandal about this in the 80s (or thereabouts) when Thatcher invoked such licence if the suspects were members of the IRA. A gang were killed in Gibralter and there was an inquiry. I can't remember now what the outcome was.

Don't know either MT, but dp has to wear a bullet proof vest to work due to attacks on the police in his area, indeed I have just found this from just before he started working there link|www.met.police.uk/walthamforest/news/release33.htm\threatened with guns} - I don't know what to think about all police being armed - Dp thinks they might be more keen now this has happened. I just don't want any harm to come to him. I don't know if that is more or less likely with a gun.

Isn't it a bit insulting to the Spanish, saying they gave a victory to Al Qaeda? People voted out a Government which had lied to them by insisting the Madrid attacks were the work of Eta.