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The official casualty roll from this morning’s attack now stands at 37 dead and 700 injured to varying degrees. It now appears that there were four separate explosions, three of them on undergound trains at Aldgate, Kings Cross, Edgware Road and one on a bus in Woburn Place near to Russell Square. The BBC website is carrying some photographs of the chaos, many of them taken on the spot with camera-phones. July 7th, 2005 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
 The German magazine ‘Spiegel On-line’ is reporting that something calling itself ‘The Secret Organisation of Al-Qaeda in Europe’ has claimed reponsibility for this morning’s attacks on London. Allegedly the triumphal claim was made on a website. The article does not link to the website but does include an apparent screenshot of the relevant posting. This is all unsubtantiated and could be complete bunkum. Who knows? UPDATE: I have just had a call from a friend who has been stuck down in Aldgate all day. He was on his way to work when the attack occured but was unscathed. Apparently the police are now allowing people to travel home from Central London. The cops he has spoken to have told him that the death toll is now 45 but this is unconfirmed. July 7th, 2005 | 38 comments - (Comments are closed)
For anyone who may be worried about relatives or friends in Central London, the Police Casualty Bureau hotline number is now open on 0870 1566 344. UPDATE: 33 fatalities now confirmed. I hope this figure does not inflate but I rather fear that it may. July 7th, 2005 | 9 comments - (Comments are closed)
Things look pretty normal round here but then I am stuck in the North London ‘burbs and the carnage is all concentrated around Central London and the West End. My mobile telephone appears to be working just fine but the public transport network has been shut down entirely. The MSM is still reporting 2 fatalities which seems mercifully low given the timing, location and nature of the attacks. Maybe this figure will rise as the day passes, but I profoundly hope that it doesn’t. Tony Blair is winging his way back to London from the G8 summit in Edinburgh and George Bush is about to make a statement. More later. UPDATE: Unconfirmed reports that death toll has risen to 10. ANOTHER UPDATE: The MSM is now reporting ‘many fatalities’ but no numbers. Either they genuinely don’t know or do know and won’t say. July 7th, 2005 | 54 comments - (Comments are closed)
The entire London Underground network is closed following explosions at Update: A bus has exploded in Russell Square and there are reports of two more buses having been bombed elsewhere in London. Looks like it is a terrorist attack. (Note: This is one of the regular Samizdatistas blogging from the Canary Wharf office district in London – anonymously because he is at work). Update:Sky News is reporting “90 casualties” at Aldgate. Transport unions are reporting “some fatalities”. The Home Secretary has referred to “terrible casualties”. There are apparently two trains trapped underground at Edgware Road. I have heard a hearsay report that three unexploded bombs were found at King’s Cross. July 7th, 2005 | 83 comments - (Comments are closed)
It is Tuesday night and I am still standing. It is actually not the drinking that does you in. It is the late night navigation of the New York subway system. Last night it took me an hour and a half to get home. Partly it is that fewer trains are running; but it is also all the repairs and shifting around of trains that happens at night. I often wonder if the City is in cahoots with Yellow Cab to make getting home late at night on the subway such a miserable prospect that you would rather reach into your pocket book for $30 to travel the length of the island. Nonetheless, I arrived at the Swift Bar with time to spare: time enough for a warm up pint or two before the music. Even without music it is a fascinating bar to drink in. The place has a Victorian look in keeping with the Jonathan Swift theme.  An impressive old style bar Photo: D.Amon, all rights reserved The truly unique part of the bar are the murals. I photographed one small section of the main mural. It is filled with detail and humour enough to keep your eyes wandering over it until you have had too many pints to focus or until they have settled on something lovely and drinking beside you.  A ghostly presence in the mural Photo: D.Amon, all rights reserved The session itself is usually quite large and with an audience to match. This particular night was pretty dead although the music was as good as ever. I have been in this bar on standing room nights with musicians several seats deep around the main table. It is also not unusual for touring musicians to stop by. The last time I was here I came by with singer Niamh Parsons (an old and dear friend of many years standing, so go buy her records!) after her tour gig. Athena O�Lochlainn, a well known fiddle player once with Sharon Shannon’s band also happened to drop in. It is that kind of session (Yes, I know Sharon too).  Eamon O’Leary plays piano… as well as his usual banjo, guitar and Mandolin. Photo: D.Amon, all rights reserved July 6th, 2005 | 6 comments - (Comments are closed)
Some of the commenters here are upset that so many Samizdata contributors object to the Olympic Games being staged in London, as if we are all anti-sports or just plain miserable old farts. Not so. Writers David Carr and Michael Jennings of this parish, for example, both like sports like football and cricket. As do I (I play a bit of cricket and golf, besides other sports). The root cause of our hostility is simply that barring a miracle, the Games will end up costing the taxpayer a lot of money, and as believers in capitalism and limited government, we don’t think sport is a legitimate government spending item in the way that say, defence is. In fact, if we cannot cut sports or the arts, say, from public spending, how can we honestly hope to roll back the state to the extent that we would like? But to be more positive about all this, it is surprising that more has not been written about how the Games, and similar events typically paid for out of taxes, could not be made entirely reliant on the private sector. The Games will create a new set of facilities in East London, which hopefully can be used for decades. Great. Then let the expected future streams of revenues generated by said facilities be used as collateral for things like bonds to pay for the project. Asset-backed securities are an increasingly common source of funding in our capital markets. Even pop star David Bowie, demonstrating the sort of business savvy common in the pop world, has issued bonds using his record sales as collateral. Why not issue “Olympic Bonds” with 20 or 30-year maturities to pay for the Games? Pension funds, which are hungry for long-dated, reliable income, would jump at them. But of course the rub is that the backers of the Games may lack the confidence that the event will generate the kind of economic returns used in the sales pitch in the run up the vote on Wednesday, which is why there is a high chance that the taxpayer will have to fork out for the Games. If any budding Olympic entrepreneurs out there want to prove me wrong and show how the Games can be entirely self-supporting, then comment away. July 6th, 2005 | 25 comments - (Comments are closed)
Three cheers and hip, hip, hooray for London will indeed host the 2012 Olympics. Sing halleluiahs and hosannas for mere, prosaic words alone cannot even begin to express the happiness that courses through my heart like a swollen river. My cup runneth over and my soul doth soar like a lark ascending the azure, cloudless, sunlit summer sky. If only another miracle would open up a hole in space-time through the next seven pointless, dreary years so that I could, this very day, cast my eyes upon the blazing, towering Olympic torch as it shines like a beacon of hope over my home town while I fervently pray from below that I may be touched by just a few humble rays of that glory. Then my life would surely be complete. I want to jump for joy. I want to dance till dawn. I want to reach out my hands to every single one of my fellow human beings, gather them all into my arms and hug them like long-lost children. I want to capture the stars, leap over the moon and fly along the milky-way. But before I do any of those things, I must quickly dash into the toilet and vomit my guts up. Excuse me. July 6th, 2005 | 14 comments - (Comments are closed)
July 6th, 2005 | 85 comments - (Comments are closed)
I am glad they caught this guy.
How much high explosive would you have to let off to do as much damage as this little monster unleashed? And before you say that explosives kill people and all he did was screw around with a zillion computers, my guess is that actually, one way or anther, he did kill quite a few people. That much stress and grief must have ended a few lives. I find myself thinking along these lines. And failing that, onwards and outwards to all those planets out there, so people like this can be transported to them, like in Alien 3. July 6th, 2005 | 17 comments - (Comments are closed)
Flying swans are the logo of the UK’s presidency of the EU over the next six months. Apparently, the UK officials are proud to point out that it is the first time an EU presidency has had an animated logo. I mean, how amazing is that? Watch out Jacques!
What a load of bollocks! We are talking about a bunch of bureaucrats and appratchiks desparately (at least I can hope) trying to recover their footing which was temporarily disrupted by the recent referenda on the EU constitution. But not everyone thinks the logo is ridiculous, for example the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds likes it:
I am having trouble keeping a straight face here. But seriously, how about streching the metaphor a bit and hope it might be the EU swan song…? July 6th, 2005 | 12 comments - (Comments are closed)
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