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I'm watching the news which is showing the lockdowns, Westminster Bridge and general panic that's going on there, after the knife-wielding and car-ramming went on. Horrible!

I spent some time in that area, staying at the Knightsbridge and Millennium hotels. My early morning walks took me to Hyde Park and by the Parliamentary buildings. It's frightening to think that something like that could happen. I'll be watching this all day and longer to see what the motive for this was.

I'll be interested to know eventually what it's about. It sounds very unlikely it has anything to do with "terrorism" though. We might find out in a few days.

As for the reaction on the ground, it appears insanely overblown. The Commons suspended? The Prime Minister whisked into a fast car? The London Eye locked down with passengers on board? Even the Edinburgh Holyrood sitting cancelled for the day?

The first question is what caused the car to crash into people on Westminster Bridge, before anything happened outside of Parliament. Was there a gunshot on the bridge itself?

Hurrell said that the car had come to a halt following shots.

There were shots to stop the car. The car turned, went completely over the cycle lane and rammed nose first into the parliamentary fence. There was someone on the ground on the right of the car. They didn’t look very good.

from the Guardian live report.

Oh these are familiar places to me too.

My good god what is this world coming too? We are slipping back into the dark ages.

Just so grim.

Suicide by Police?

They're being very careful to waffle without saying anything.

I'm waiting to hear the words "Leman Street" at this point. And comparisons with "Cressida".

reporting from across the pond,

U.K. police shoot assailant at Parliament, car strikes several on Westminster Bridge - World - CBC News

I remember walking across that bridge with you, minksy. Nobody hit us with traffic or stopped the London Eye.

minks;1507684 wrote: U.K. police shoot assailant at Parliament, car strikes several on Westminster Bridge - World - CBC News


British lawmaker Grant Shapps said on Twitter that he was walking through the cloisters of the House of Commons to vote when he heard four gunshots. Police told lawmakers to get down on the ground and crawl to cover.



I've heard Grant Shapps called many things before, but not "British lawmaker". He's a politician.

I hate this crap. Hope you are all doing well today and that someone has had the presence of mind to steal Trumps phone.

Flops that is both disturbing and funny at the same time.

Just heard the news on CBS radio, 1pm Central Time, and will surely get more details on the evening TV newscasts, coming up in a few hours.

I expect if we wait until Sunday the reporters might have sifted the information into coherence. What there is at the moment is frenzied words for the sake of making a noise.

Hhhhmmmm. Sounds like another Bourke Street.

I think you're right. The earlier reports in the paper about shots heard before the car crash now sound unlikely.

Im confused, why is it being called a terrorist attack? Is he a terrorist?

Why is it that nobody is allowed to go off the nut anymore?

So they say he's a terrorist then retract it.....then Theresa May does the most melodramatic speech ive ever heard from a prime minister.....will she now retract her statments?.......and does she always sound like that?

Until the media passes his identity to the public nobody can begin to find out. He may well have intended to do what he did from extremist motives, we'll have better information eventually.

If the British government had left Saddam Hussein, Qaddafi and the Syrian Ba'athists stable nothing like this would be happening, and their respective countries would be a damn sight better ruled and prosperous. Blaming refugees, as the White House does, is to miss the point.

Theresa May said this evening that "attempts to defeat UK values were doomed to failure". Nonsense. The policing we've seen today shows that the UK's values have already been defeated. The UK's values consisted, in my day, of a dogged and deliberate business as usual while competently handling criminals, without making a performance of it. That's how we did things when we had values. We didn't corral the nearest thousand people into Westminster Abbey so we could take their photos and check their ID before letting them go home. And I doubt the Prime Minister back then would have done a runner at the first hint of trouble, advice or no advice. If you hear gunfire, Ms May, you're meant to walk towards it. That's in your job description.

spot;1507699 wrote: Until the media passes his identity to the public nobody can begin to find out. He may well have intended to do what he did from extremist motives, we'll have better information eventually.

If the British government had left Saddam Hussein, Qaddafi and the Syrian Ba'athists stable nothing like this would be happening, and their respective countries would be a damn sight better ruled and prosperous. Blaming refugees, as the White House does, is to miss the point.

Theresa May said this evening that "attempts to defeat UK values were doomed to failure". Nonsense. The policing we've seen today shows that the UK's values have already been defeated. The UK's values consisted, in my day, of a dogged and deliberate business as usual while competently handling criminals, without making a performance of it. That's how we did things when we had values. We didn't round up the nearest thousand people into Westminster Abbey so we could take their photos and check their ID before letting them go home, either. And I doubt the Prime Minister back then would have done a runner at the first hint of trouble, advice or no advice.




"IF"

If my Aunt had testes, she would be my Uncle.......begging your pardon ladies.

A year ago today......in Belgium there were 3 (three) coordinated attacks.

At 2.40 today as a vehicle ploughed through sightseers on Westminster Bridge the safest course of action was to shut down all movement until it was deemed to be safe.

I think tomorrow everything will carry on as usual......now that is Britishness for you.....as was Spot's very British whinge

Bruv;1507701 wrote: At 2.40 today as a vehicle ploughed through sightseers on Westminster Bridge the safest course of action was to shut down all movement until it was deemed to be safe.


An airstrike by the US-led coalition against Islamic State on a school west of the Syrian city of Raqqa has killed at least 33 people, many of whom had fled nearby fighting

That's today's news headline. Not ten years ago, not last year, it's today's.

If you had the ability to cancel one, would you cancel that or today's events in London?

It's nothing to do with "if", it's to do with responsibility. The British government is directly responsible for the extremism, it is culpable, it is guilty of waging unjust war. Everything else is a fleabite by comparison.

'If' only we could turn back time.

We are where we are, having to deal with what we have now.

So......who has the moral high ground, the US pilot or the angry lone bearded gentleman on the bridge ?

Bruv;1507705 wrote: So......who has the moral high ground, the US pilot or the angry lone bearded gentleman on the bridge ?Actually, from the wording of the article I had thought it was implied the British had dropped the bombs, not the Americans. When it's the Americans it's referred to as a US airstrike, not a US-led airstrike.

The gentleman on the bridge, obviously. He's put his own life on the line with very little chance of walking away from it, and he hasn't the capacity to kill so many innocent unarmed civilians. Ethics 101, that.

Low tech suicide missions. The disadvantage is the perpetrator knows which day and hour he will die...... everyone else has no such advantage.

As far as the airstrike is concerned...... the US is saying "their is no evidence" .....another words 'nobody saw it, i didnt do it'. Or......'we have no evidence, so you prove it' .....sad really.

Almosr creepy. I was in london over the weekend staying just along the road on the albert embankment - watched the st patricks day poarade on sunday. I must have walked past that spot three or four times on my way in to london. Drove a lorry over westminster bridge twice. Low tech terrorism indeed if thgat is what it is I can never understand why terrorists go in for such complicated schemes like the twin towers blowing up a lorry packed with explosives or a petrol tanker in the middle of a city would paralyse most european or american cities. I lived in london in the 1980's at the height of the ira bombings when they were putting bombs in litter bins that's why you don't se many metal ones nowadays.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_t ... _in_London

I'm afraid I don;t think much of theresa May's "british values" then Xenophobia, racial prejudice and an innate sense of superiority and readiness to ride roughshod over anyone who objects helped build the britush empire so maybe she has a point.

An American man has been named as one of the victims of Wednesday's deadly attack in London

The death toll rises.

Bruv;1507728 wrote: An American man has been named as one of the victims of Wednesday's deadly attack in London

The death toll rises.


I saw that on this morning's news. That's quite a detailed story. Sad that they were celebrating their 25th anniversary. Sad too for everyone who was killed, injured or affected by this horrible attack.

My problem isn't with the overthrowing of dictators, it's that when the fighting is done there has never been an adequate follow up. The tragedy is that in Iraq it could have been done: a huge peace offensive involving rebuilding, aid at a personal level, political training and help at regional and national levels, that sort of thing. Some of it was done in a sketchy, half hearted way but nothing like enough. By orders of magnitude not enough. Had it been, then there might have been more support for Obama's call against Assad for use of chemical weapons, the whole situation with Gaddafi would have been different...

But the chance was missed. I rate it as one of the worst mistakes we've been involved in, certainly in my time watching international politics.