We are not afraid [Am]

Quite a lot of the clan live in London or there abouts so you might think it strange that no-one blogged, as yet, on the aftermath of the bombs. I think that it's obviously a personal thing on which I certainly don't represent the clan in this post, but I do have a few things I'd like to say....
There have been some magnificent responses to what happened from, of course, the emergency services on the day through to the public show of support in the two minute silence today. As well as the respect for the people who perished and were hurt I sense there is also a very strong determination in a huge number of right thinking people in the country that the UK's united country, united people ideals will not be thwarted by twisted extremism.
A website www.werenotafraid.com has been set up and received bbc coverage for simple images uploaded from across the world expressing solidarity and support for London.
In looking through the pages there I had three main thoughts
i) I'm really very pleasantly surprised just how much support has been posted up by european people for London in the wake of the bombings. It's very nice to see a huge outpouring of support from germany, holland and france to name but three. Thanks.
ii) There's a huge amount of people in this world who like to post a picture of a fluffy cat or small dog with "Not Afraid" next to it. I actually don't mind this. But it sure as hell reminds me about how many, probably very nice, people in the world there are who can't face reality what-so-friggin-ever. Bless you.
iii) There's a number of really nicely meant thoughts put the way of London but which obviously come from people who are actually a hell of a lot more scared than Londoners themselves were in response to last thursday;
Here it was pretty different....
When people post "we're not afraid" it's simply a nice piece of sloganeering. It's support and that's cool. But you know, here where it happened, there was a core of steel that has made me proud of being a part of London and which is so palpably real its not just some bullshit piece of counter-propaganda. It really has stunned me just how public and strong this feeling is. In this city in the last few days, and in fact on the day itself, London's legendary stiff upper lip re-asserted itself in a new but very profoundly strong way.
In the days that followed the bombings, you might have expected a city and a nation to get fearful and worried about what happened.
Did it? Did it fuck.....
What has followed is everything that is great about Britain and its spirit. In a hundred thousand instances, the response has been to put back a public face that says a mountain-sized "FUCK YOU" to the people who would seek to disrupt our lives.
I would not want anyone to think that "London handled it better" because of course observations on responses to terror are not a relative exercise compared to others. The facts, drivers and circumstances are utterly different.
But the London bombings caused a response from the british nation which millions of people are expressing from the fibre and the bones of the country and I'd say the message repeatedly from literally those millions of voices has been this;
*Not remotely fuckin scared of you
*No fuckin chance we'll change because of you
*You cannot possibly hope to defeat our spirit
It might be a bit hard for outsiders to understand that there truly is no sloganeering or ra-ra-britain content in this blog. To those opposed to our values, if you remotely fail to understand the above three bullet points or doubt them then I say to you, you really have no clue about Londoners and the British people.
London is proud to be multi-cultural, multi-racial. You can do what you like but you've never picked on a less receptive, prouder, stronger city than London. So to the cowards that would try to change us understand one thing very plainly
- Here, truly, the more you try, the less effective you'll be....