# The best summary yet of London's attitude **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 9, 2005, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-summary-yet-of-londons-attitude/311784 "2005-07-09T21:54:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SuperNelson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@SuperNelson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuperNelson)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-summary-yet-of-londons-attitude/311784/21 "2005-07-11T13:51:47Z")
Dave Barry has been vacationing in London through all this, and had this to say in his [blog:](http://weblog.herald.com/column/davebarry/) > [@](#): > > The show goes on everywhere here: The underground is running again, and people are resuming their lives. I remain awed by how calmly Londoners have handled the terrorist attack. I believe that one reason for this is that the British TV news people have displayed less excitability and hysteria than American TV news people displayed in response to the Michael Jackson verdict. That’s not an exaggeration: That’s really how it appears. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-summary-yet-of-londons-attitude/311784/22 "2005-07-11T13:58:23Z")
T_he show goes on everywhere here: The underground is running again, and people are resuming their lives. I remain awed by how calmly Londoners have handled the terrorist attack. I believe that one reason for this is that the British TV news people have displayed less excitability and hysteria than American TV news people displayed in response to the Michael Jackson verdict. That’s not an exaggeration: That’s really how it appears._ Yes, thank God we don’t have the equivalent of Fox News over hear with all its empty talk of “freedom” and its constant displaying of the terror-alert state. ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-summary-yet-of-londons-attitude/311784/23 "2005-07-11T14:02:15Z")
> [@Rayne Man](#): > > Yes, thank God we don’t have the equivalent of Fox News over hear with all its empty talk of “freedom” and its constant displaying of the terror-alert state. _cough_SkyNews_cough_ ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-summary-yet-of-londons-attitude/311784/24 "2005-07-11T14:06:22Z")
> [@TwistofFate](#): > > _cough_SkyNews_cough_ They’re nothing like Fox. I have no trouble with Sky. They are no better or worse than the BBC or ITV. All three seemed to give a calm and measured response to the events in London. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-summary-yet-of-londons-attitude/311784/25 "2005-07-11T14:06:47Z")
I love Sky News, for just one thing - the way they try to keep channel-hoppers hooked, by filling half the screen being filled with things like: _ **NEWSFLASH:** _ London attackers still at large _ **NEWSFLASH:** _ Blair condemns bomb attacks _ **NEWSFLASH:** _ Bear shits in wood ---
**Author:** ![Axel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6de8d8/32.png) [@Axel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Axel)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-summary-yet-of-londons-attitude/311784/26 "2005-07-11T19:35:29Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > _cough_1066_cough_ Thought someone might say that. That was the invasion that _created_ England (from the Angles who invaded. That’s right, we were conquered by trigonometry). Before that the country was Britain and rather different in ethnic make-up and culture. Hence, there has been no successful invasion of England. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-summary-yet-of-londons-attitude/311784/27 "2005-07-11T19:48:14Z")
> [@Axel](#): > > That was the invasion that _created_ England (from the Angles who invaded. They’d been here for hundred of years. It was the Normans who turned up in 1066. And the identity of England had been forming for a long time, with Alfred the Great styling himself King of England nearly two centuries earlier. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-summary-yet-of-londons-attitude/311784/28 "2005-07-11T20:08:07Z")
I’ve been reading an email from a doctor who works at the Royal London Hospital. My uncle (who is a surgeon and on the [trauma.org](http://trauma.org) mailing list, which is how he got the email) forwarded it to me. The doctor wasn’t on duty that day, but was outlining how the major disaster plan swung into action…about 6 months ago they had actually had a simulation of multiple conventional weapons attacks on the underground, so the plan which swung into place was designed for this exact scenario. He writes this: _“The few square miles around the Royal London Hospital are the most ethnically diverse area on the planet, with over 200 cultures and more than 30 languages spoken. Signs at the hospital are in 14 different languages. These people live side by side, work side by side and their kids play side by side. The people who have shown such capacity and resilience are not ‘the English’ but are people from all over the world who have become Londoners. The East End was raised to the ground during the Blitz with 9 months of continuous bombing. According to George Orwell the only change he noticed was ‘that people were more likely now to talk to strangers in the street.’ London’s spirit permeates you, no matter where you came from, no matter what your background - and I think yesterday we served as a model for how the world should respond to these incidents.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Axel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6de8d8/32.png) [@Axel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Axel)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-summary-yet-of-londons-attitude/311784/29 "2005-07-11T23:27:37Z")
> [@irishgirl](#): > > He writes this: > _“The few square miles around the Royal London Hospital are the most ethnically diverse area on the planet, with over 200 cultures and more than 30 languages spoken. Signs at the hospital are in 14 different languages. These people live side by side, work side by side and their kids play side by side. The people who have shown such capacity and resilience are not ‘the English’ but are people from all over the world who have become Londoners. The East End was raised to the ground during the Blitz with 9 months of continuous bombing. According to George Orwell the only change he noticed was ‘that people were more likely now to talk to strangers in the street.’ London’s spirit permeates you, no matter where you came from, no matter what your background - and I think yesterday we served as a model for how the world should respond to these incidents.”_ That’s my manor _proud_ All true. ‘London’ and ‘Londoners’ is more an idea than anything else. The people who move to London know what they’re getting. Part of the idea of London, even moreso East London, is that it is diverse and has been for a couple of hundred years. Though there are some Anglo-Saxon types here too, you know. We share in the credit for the calm response as much as anyone of any colour or background. It does get a little annoying sometimes, with the rightful celebration of the area’s diversity, that one particular racial group is ignored for not being diverse enough. > [@](#): > > They’d been here for hundred of years. It was the Normans who turned up in 1066. And the identity of England had been forming for a long time, with Alfred the Great styling himself King of England nearly two centuries earlier. Don’t know why I got that so mixed up. Thanks for the correction. For some reason I had it fixed in my head for that one moment that 1066 was the Angles, not the Normans. I know full well it’s not - I’ve taken a dozen tour groups to the Tower, after all. My family’s ashes go to the church attached to it! OK then, I change my argument: England hasn’t been invaded for a bloody long time. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-summary-yet-of-londons-attitude/311784/30 "2005-07-12T06:01:15Z")
This may be the spirit shown by Londoners and Brits in general but it has just been announced on the news that the 10,000 Americans from the Mildenhall and Lakenheath air-bases in Suffolk have been banned from visiting London or even entering the M25 “ring”. What sort of message does that give out ? ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-summary-yet-of-londons-attitude/311784/31 "2005-07-12T06:26:57Z")
> [@Rayne Man](#): > > This may be the spirit shown by Londoners and Brits in general but it has just been announced on the news that the 10,000 Americans from the Mildenhall and Lakenheath air-bases in Suffolk have been banned from visiting London or even entering the M25 “ring”. What sort of message does that give out ? That they’re more scared than we are? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-summary-yet-of-londons-attitude/311784/32 "2005-07-12T07:26:48Z")
> [@Rayne Man](#): > > 10,000 Americans from the Mildenhall and Lakenheath air-bases in Suffolk have been banned from visiting London or even entering the M25 “ring”. What sort of message does that give out ? Ahh, they’re just getting into the Suffolk mindset, nothing to do with the bombs. _“Oi int garn t’Landon. Woi’d oi wanna do summut loik thart?”_ ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-summary-yet-of-londons-attitude/311784/33 "2005-07-12T08:07:11Z")
> [@Rayne Man](#): > > 10,000 Americans from the Mildenhall and Lakenheath air-bases in Suffolk have been banned from visiting London or even entering the M25 “ring”. [Here](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1690634,00.html) is the _Times_ article on this. Color me baffled. WTF? If it’s true as reported, it’s a **really** dumb decision. Obviously, they have to keep combat-ready numbers on base, but to suggest that those on leave are in greater danger from terrorism than of being killed in off-base automobile accidents is just silly (and I have to add, wussy to the extreme). For shame, USAF! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-summary-yet-of-londons-attitude/311784.md?page=1)