7th July

I don’t really have time for blogging these days, but here’s a few updates:

I’m OK – The Northern line was out by the time I got to it, so I switched to the Victoria.

No idea if or how I’m getting home tonight. The underground will be out for days or weeks, I think.

I’m mainly relieved. I always knew this was coming – it’s happened and it missed me.
The choice is between a Manhattan-style major event or a Madrid-style set of co-ordinated strikes. Here in Canary Wharf would one of the top targets for the Manhattan-style attack.

So far, it seems the impact has been smaller than Madrid. Possibly there’s a trainload of bodies in a tunnel somewhere, if not then we’ve got off very light.

Still, a very heavy double blow for London these two days. This might cause even more damage to the life and economy of London than the Olympics.

Update 13:45 : Thameslink are running trains outbound from King’s Cross, so it looks like I should be able to get home (probably have to walk across London). Wikipedia has rumours of something up at Luton, but no confirmation anywhere, so I think we can ignore that. A commenter on europhobia had a story about Marines shooting a suicide bomber at Canary Wharf, which I think is rubbish. As of 12:32, company security was reporting “no specific threats have been made in relation to Canary Wharf”.

No more attacks as yet. This seems to be more on the scale (though not in the style) of the IRA than the sort of attack I was afraid of. If this is their best shot, we can definitely take it.

Update 16:00 : Getting ready to call it a day. DLR is resuming service, which will get me half way to King’s Cross. They’re saying the Underground will resume tomorrow morning, so I might even be able to come in tomorrow.

Transport and Emergency services appear to have done a superb job. If the network is running anywhere near normal tomorrow that will be an amazing feat.

There is of course the possiblity of follow-up attacks, but frankly I don’t think the bad guys are up to it. I looks to me like the brains in that outfit have all been rounded up or blown up, and we’re dealing with wannabees and idiots. Still dangerous, of course, in an unsubtle way — almost any idiot can blow up 20 people on a packed tube train — but not capable of anything really spectacular.