Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense

Terrorist attacks are nothing new to Britain - and surely not to London, where the IRA used to reckon one bomb was worth a dozen or more in Belfast. But neither that, nor my countrymen's ability to absorb the damages of evil men should ever be mistaken for complacency. Quiet and reserved we may be, but we are not complacent. Our governments do not treat with terrorists; and any one that did, or which was perceived as doing so, would not remain a government very long. Our instincts are not to appease, not to excuse, but to fight back - and not just in obvious ways: we'll line-up next day, politely too, to take our places on the Tube or on the bus or on an airplane; we'll be back at work with a vengeance, or back in the pubs or restauraunts or whatever it is they blow-up; back again next day, even if it's only to be turned back by police. This we do, this quiet defiance, and a point is made whether evil men take note or not. We know, too, that our police and our armed services will not sit idle: that terrorists will be hunted, stalked, chased, harried; brought to justice one way or another.

Today our thoughts are with the people of London - the ordinary everyday workaday people of London - with those who bore the brunt of this evil and their loved ones. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow there will be a reckoning.