It Was Five Years Ago Today

Where were you on the morning of July 7 2005? Confession time: I was sitting at my desk in an anonymous looking office block in Bristol, far away from the unfolding events in London.

The news filtered through slowly: at first we were told that there had been some kind of “power surge” on the city’s Underground system. But, as confirmation came through that there were fatalities, it became obvious that there had been a terrorist attack.

And the most devastating of the attacks occurred on a deep level Tube line: the blast from the explosion was constrained by the small diameter of the tunnel, and so projected along the train, causing the most substantial loss of life of all the attacks.

Today, there will not be any major commemoration of those attacks, which might not be universally popular, but I’d go with the low key approach. More, I’d be more impressed to know that the various intelligence agencies are working together more effectively and keeping their guard up.

The authorities in Madrid came clean after the bombings there, and admitted that they had been caught off guard. They soon rounded up the remaining culprits. Let’s have some of that in the UK.