Sunday, July 01, 2007

In the News

My countdown at the top of the blog has been heralding the arrival of the no smoking laws in England.  Now that it is here though, the news is dominated by other stories.

The thought that the two London car bombs were placed - one to cause fear and one to hit the crowd as it flees - is sickening to me.

Yet it was clear that those party-goers out in London were refusing to be scared away.

Following that the car bomb in Glasgow showed me too obvious things.  Firstly people in Scotland clearly saw themselves as being out of the firing line as far as terrorism was concerned and secondly, now that they are in the firing line they are even more bloody minded about not being affected by it.

The fact that members of the Glasgow public assisted a policeman in arresting one of the two "bombers" is a credit to the Scottish people, given that the stereotypical "Weegie" is portrayed as being a police hater.

Having worked in Glasgow for a number of years, none of this surprises me though.  Apart from Yorkshiremen I don't think I have come across a collective of people who are more bloody minded that the west coasters of Scotland!

1 comment:

GF said...

Hear-hear!! (or is that Here-Here!?)

The thing that got me in stitches yesterday was 'as it happened' there was a telephone eye-witness interview with the guy who helped the police arrest.

He said (and I paraphrase only slightly) "once this guy who was alight was put out, he got up and started fighting with the police. I just went over and knocked him back down again." Loved it, made me smile and proud to be Scottish.

My Mum said to me yesterday "I'm glad you've finished all your trips down to London, what with everything that's going on."

"Mum", I replied, "Two guys just drove a jeep filled with gas, petrol, etc. into an airport I use almost weekly, which is 1 mile from my house!" I know she's worried, but I think she missed the point originally.

Yes I agree though, Scotland has never really been a target, even during the years of IRA Campaigns, so it was slightly sobering, but I know nobody who has stopped and thought "Oh shit, I'll need to change my plans, or the way I live my life"