Charles Clarke’s speech to the European Parliament from this morning (link courtesy of a kindly comment).

Apparently the reason some people are wary of the EU is that it “does not appear to give sufficient priority to offering practical solutions which make a difference to some of the issues of greatest concern” – namely EEEVIL TERRORISTS, organised crime and asylum seekers. Let’s ignore the fact that people have been wary of the concept of the EU since its inception, shall we? And while we’re at it ignore that the original concept was economic, not judicial… Done? Excellent! Now that we’ve constructed a false history we can make that fiction fit our arguments. Hurrah!

These issues can, argues Clarke, “be used by poisonous demagogues to undermine the very democracy which has in some cases so recently been created.” By, for example, providing excuses for detention without trial, the collation of vast amounts of personal data on individuals by the state, the abuse of the voting system to perpetrate fraud via the post and secure a parliamentary majority on the votes of just 22% of the electorate, and the execution of innocent men on mere circumstantial evidence without any attempt at an arrest, let alone a trial. Hurrah!

And so Clarke confounds with truth: “in our globalised world no single country can tackle these problems alone, even in their own country”. Eh? That makes sense. He’s up to something… Ah – a couple of paragraphs on – it’s political point-scoring against (unspecified) isolationist parties – which can only really mean UKIP, Veritas and the BNP in the UK. Are they that much of a threat to Labour? Hmmm…

And then: “The second principle that must underlie our approach is to strengthen the foundation of practical and pragmatic police and intelligence work” – “pragmatic” eh? What, precisely, does the Safety Elephant mean by that, exactly? Fears begin to bubble to the surface again… I always thought pragmatism was based on facts and an understanding of cause and effect – for example, if you don’t know for a fact that someone is a terrorist, you don’t shoot them in the head – for you realise that the effect may be detrimental to the overall counter-terrorism operation. You acknowledge that your own actions may have acted as a catalyst to an existing situation, and wonder how the effect of that new cause can be lessened. Is Charlie going to announce the end to shoot-to-kill and a bold new government strategy for calming the situation in Iraq? I can’t quite put my finger on why, but I doubt it…

He then, of course, brings up the European Arrest Warrant as a practical, pragmatic approach. Yet fails to mention it has been struck down as unconstitutional in Germany and that it retains serious flaws (as in a British citizen could be forcibly extradited to, say, France to face trial in French courts with no right to first have a hearing in Britain to determine the validity of the charges). He also brings up the need for “cross-border prosecutions” – perhaps thanks to that terrorist chappie fighting extradition from Italy – which he seems to be doing fairly successfully in spite of the European Arrest Warrant, it must be said…

“But it is the third principle which I believe poses the greatest challenge in its modern application. That principle is that we need to use intelligence effectively and intelligently to target, track down, identify and convict the criminals who through terrorist violence and committing serious and organised crime threaten the security and strength of our society.”

So, despite earlier hints that the data retention proposals were going to be proposed as all about organised crime with terrorism as an added bonus, now Charlie’s lumping terrorists in with other criminals – fair enough, to an extent, but another new shift in the Blair government’s approach on this one.

“Of course criminals and terrorists use modern technology: the internet and mobile communications to plan and carry out their activities. We can only effectively contest them if we know what they are communicating. Without that knowledge we are fighting them with both hands tied behind our backs.”

And they’re all probably paedophiles too! The interweb’s full of criminals, terrorists and paedophiles! Hey – why stop at the internet – these devious criminals and terrorists can utilise the postal service to send each other – *shudder* – LETTERS! We need to open every letter and parcel to be really sure! And carrier pigeons! How can we be certain that the birds in Trafalgar Square aren’t the sinister tools of a vast network of EEEEVIL TERRORISTS?

“This is not a sterile debate about principles but about practical measures to contest criminality and out opponents.

“Practical measures, eh? Collecting and storing every phone call, text message, email and history of website visits of all 450 million people in the EU is a practical measure now, is it? Having the already overstretched intelligence services having to search through all that incomprehensively vast quantity of information on the off-chance that they can identify a criminal group or terror cell is a practical measure now, is it? I know technology’s come on immensely in recent years, but methinks Mr Clarke is either somewhat optimistic or simply a fucking idiot if he truly believes that.

But data retention’s not all. As predicted, Clarke’s trying to get ID cards in through the back door:

“That is why we argue that internationally consistent and coherent biometric data should be an automatic part of our visas, passports and identity cards where we have them � and would even suggest driving licences as well.”

This, Clarke admits, “can only be achieved through international agreements, particularly in the European Union” – because he knows all too well that they’ll never be able to pass the kinds of measures they want through the British parliament, or get them past the suspicious Chancellor, nervous of the insanely vast cost of this hare-brained and intrusive scheme.

But how can he possibly do this when “we now possess many hard-fought rights such as the right to privacy, the right to property, the right to free speech and the right to life”? Well simple – it’s not the people trying to compile data on every part of our lives and pry into every aspect of our daily communication. It’s not the people who want to lock us up without trial and who have ordered shoot-to-kill policies without telling us. Oh no – according to Clarke: “Those rights are actively threatened by criminals and terrorists.” Of course! It’s not the government that’s actively trying to destory our freedoms, just the people who want to rob or kill us.

Clarke then agrees that “In making these judgements we need to reflect in each case on the balance between the civil liberty being effected and the increased security being achieved to ensure any changes we make to the status quo are proportionate and reasonable.” Well, Charlie boy, I can answer that one – no, no they are NOT proportionate and reasonable.

Giving the state the power to pry into my personal email correspondance, to track my location via mobile phone, to record my phone calls and pry into my billing information without the express permission of a court of law based on the submission of evidence that I may be a threat, but merely on the whim of a random official is most certainly not anything like reasonable. Trawling through everyone’s personal correspondance JUST IN CASE they may be up to something dodgy grants the state a position akin to omnipotence, a power that is simply too great. Yet it will not be omnipotence, because there will remain areas into which the government cannot pry. And those will be the areas to which the professed target groups – the criminals and terrorists – will retreat.

And for the record, Mr Clarke, your claim that this “will not lead to the mass surveillance of our citizens and unnecessary invasion of their right to privacy” is one that you give no guarantees of other than your word. And the word of a politician (as John Humphrys rightly pointed out) is not to be trusted. Or did we forget the manifesto promise not to introduce university tuition fees already? Even if the current government has no plans to abuse this new-found, vast power, who’s to say future governments won’t?

And finally he goes on to attack human rights. After all, the right not to be tortured is only a minor right in the grand scheme of things:

“Our strengthening of human rights needs to acknowledge a truth which we should all accept, that the right to be protected from torture and ill-treatment must be considered side by side with the right to be protected from the death and destruction caused by indiscriminate terrorism”

Christ… The fact that he then goes on to talk about “safety and security under the law” simply shows how much contempt he has for everyone listening – namely the democratically-elected Members of the European Parliament whose views will likely be ignored as soon as Clarke, Blair and co can secure an international agreement via other sources.

And he ends with the wonderful conclusion – as yet to my knowledge not proposed by any other source as it’s so fucking stupid – that the French and Dutch no votes in their constitutional referenda were due to a desire for greater police powers in the struggle against international terrorism. Because, you know, any other explanation wouldn’t fit the current agenda – which is why they’ve dropped the previous line that the “No” votes were due to a dislike of the EU budget and Common Agricultural Policy…

Fucking ANGER. Apologies for lack of sense/rage etc – rattled off from the top of my head while reading through the damn thing. I dislike Charles Clarke intensely, and this government more and more by the day. Come on, Tories/Lib Dems, sort yourselves out. We need someone to take these fuckers to task over this. We need a proper sodding opposition to these dangerous, ill-thinking bastards, and we need one now. They can’t be allowed to get away with slipping this through from overseas. We need demands for Commons votes, and we need the Labour backbenches to be mobilised in opposition to this dangerous, expensive and useless attempt to turn the state into the biggest peeping Tom of all time.

In short: Gah.

(Now also at The Sharpener)

Following this post (crossposted here), where I suggested that the reports of smoke and a strange smell on a tube train at Vauxhall on Friday (shortly before the unfortunate shooting incident at Stockwell down the road) were the product of hysteria, I’ve had some new versons from people who were on the train.

First, Keith (at The Sharpener):

“Was in that carriage on the victoria line, the smoke and smell was getting overwhelming, and smelled like nothing ive ever smelled before – people had their hands on their face. Still, it was quite calm, all it took was one woman to scream �oh my god� and thats when it got out of control.”

Then an anonymous comment left on this blog:

“Me and my girlfriend were both on the actual carriage in Vauxhall that filled with fumes after leaving Stockwell. The operation took over three hours – significantly longer than any of the recent ‘false alarms’. The station was about to be reopened within about 20 minutes of the incident when police realised that the smell of the fumes was NOT the smell of the trains emergency brakes. They then mounted a very large security operation including bomb disposal units in contamination suits and masks. We both stayed with the police in the cordon throughout, then were moved at one point, completely out of sight into the street behind. I can say, and several other witnesses will corroborate, that our carriage definately filled with some kind of acrid chemical smelling haze, which we first tried to ignore but eventually became so strong that people began to cough. The reports of hysteria in the carriage affected are wildly exaggerated, most people managed to remain considerate and fairly calm under the circumstances. For a false alarm this was a pretty major operation, taken very seriously by the officers in the cordon. It’s absence from any news reports from that day seems a little conspicuous to me.”

Then John (also at The Sharpener):

“I was also on the carriage between Stockwell and vauxhall were the alarm was raised. Just wanted to add that I too could smell fumes and see a bluish mist that was unlike anything else I had seen or smelled on the tube. I tried to remian sceptical for as long as possible, but it became overpowering causing people to cough- at that point the �oh my god� woman pulled the alarm. There was a panic, but not nearly as bad as some have made out -at least not on that carriage. The �hysterical� woman was, obviously, very distressed but reacted faster than anyone around her in getting to the alarm and evacuating the carriage. This situation would have warranted the alarm to have been pulled regardless of any recent terrorist activity. For a journalist Nosemonkey seems to have been a little premature in dismissing this incident outright – everyone around me was independently reacting to the fumes, covering their mouths and coughing before the woman described as a �rabid spactard� actually cried out.”

Which just goes to show that there are limits to the amount of investigative journalism you can do using the interweb – which is hardly a surprise, but still.

So now we can (probably – assuming that these new accounts are reliable) revise to suggest that something did happen at Vauxhall, but no one knows precisely what.

Which then goes to make the whole thing even more confusing. Our shot innocent man was killed at Stockwell at about 10am. The incident at Vauxhall happened before that, probably between 9:15 and 9:30 (accounts on the BBC plus the fact that the train at Stockwell which was in the platform when our Brazilian electrician was killed had gone through Vauxhall without stopping). There was also, around the same time, something going on at Kennington.

As our man at Stockwell was unconnected to the ongoing police investigation, we can discount early theories that he tried to detonate a bomb at Vauxhall, then legged it overground to Stockwell (which wouldn’t have taken him that long anyway, as it’s only about a 10-15 minute walk).

So now we’re left with a confusing coincidence – the only connecting factor being that Vauxhall, Kennington and Stockwell are all centered around Oval, where one of the bombs failed to detonate on Thursday. There have also been two arrests made in Stockwell over the last few days in connection with the bombings (although I believe one of those arrested has since been released).

Is there any significance to this, or is it merely turning into another candidate for Private Eye�s �Conspiracy Corner�?

Christ. The guy they shot didn’t have anything to do with the bombings.

(via)

Note to anyone who looks remotely dark-skinned, has black hair etc. – if police are present, DO NOT RUN.

Wasn’t it Not the 9 O’Clock News with the “Driving in posession of brown skin and tight black curly hair” sketch?

It was understandable in the circumstances, but they’ve still got some serious explaining to do – and nothing they say is going to get London’s asian population feeling comfortable. A Sikh mate of mine was saying only yesterday that he’s shitting himself every time he’s on the tube – not because of bombs, but because of other passengers’ reactions towards him, an asian guy with a rucksack. When he’s got to be afraid of a trigger-happy policeman getting over-excited as well, it’s hardly going to be a great situation…

Now imagine he was Muslim instead of Sikh, who’s he going to be tempted to rally behind? The most vocal opposition. And we all know who they normally are.

Christ… Pretty much worst case scenario. Although at least they didn’t kill any bystanders as well, I suppose.

Update: The man is thought to have been South American.

In other words – to indulge in speculation – olive skinned, dark haired, from a hot country so likely to have been feeling the cold (yesterday was chillier than it has been in London), and possibly not only not an English speaker, so unable to understand police instructions, but also from a region where police have a reputation for going around killing people at random.

Further update: To clarify my position, I’ll borrow Tim Worstall’s words (in the comments):

“I do not mean to imply that the police are racist. It�ll surprise a lot of people in the UK but it is one of the least racist countries I have ever been in. No, my point is that the shooting will increase the perception of racism by some communities and that this is something that further hatred and violence might (might!) feed off.”

More comment: rhetorically speaking.., A Big Stick and a Small Carrot, Londonist, Honourable Fiend, Mayor of London Blog, Indigo Jo Blogs, and in the interest of balance, Barking Moonbat Early Warning System and Liberty Blog (since when were the Met known for being “pollitically correct pussies”? News to me…)

Otherwise known as a prime example of the problems of citizen journalism (and hysterical women)…

(This follows today’s liveblog coverage of the shooting at Stockwell and other events.)

First pondering:

“I find it strange there aren’t many press stories about an incident at Vauxhall. My colleague was on the tube and a rucksack had smoke coming out of it and the station was evacuated, with according to him people fighting each other to get out first. It’s on the BBC’s ‘have your say’ feature, but not mentioned anywhere else, except the Sydney Morning Herald, bizarrely.”

Here’s the BBC’s page in question, first:

“I was on the Victoria Line tube going north this morning at about 9.15. In the tunnel between Stockwell and Vauxhall we all noticed a distinct burning smell coming from a carriage in front of us (the middle of the train).”

And again:

“I was at Vauxhall this morning and I’d like to thank a man in a Fantastic Four T-Shirt for keeping me calm when everyone got panicky.”

And again, contradicting the first one slightly:

“I was at Vauxhall in the middle carriage and I heard shouting and screaming coming from the end carriage. I was standing by the door, so people pushed me off the train and I fell to the floor. People were trampling on me to get to the exit.”

And another:

“I was on the Victoria line tube this morning that was evacuated at about 9.20am. A girl I spoke to outside the station afterwards told me how she was in a carriage closer to the middle of the train than mine, and heard someone shout to pull the emergency alarm. She then saw smoke in the carriage and along with all the other passengers, rushed to try to get into the next carriage whilst the train was still moving. When the doors opened at Vauxhall everyone just legged it off the train.”

Then more confusion:

“I was on the tube at Vauxhall this morning at around 9.15am when all of a sudden people started screaming and running to get out. There was real panic and I thought another bomb had gone off but didn’t hear or see anything except screaming.”

And a more logical-sounding account:

“I was on a Victoria line tube at about 9.20am having got on at Vauxhall. The tube was just about to leave when somebody started screaming. I later found out they thought they could smell something funny. I’m not sure if there was any more to it than that but panic followed.”

Another bit of hearsay:

“A colleague was at Vauxhall this morning and there was a package in the carriage next to theirs of the tube, which exploded, with smoke everywhere.”

Then another account, this time from outside the station:

“this morning, on my way back in from a run, vauxhall station, a 10 minute walk from my flat, was cordoned off and people weren’t allowed to use the above ground trains.”

Finally, here’s something that professes to be an eyewitness blogger account of the Kennington tube evacuation, Stockwell standoff with police and aftermath of Vauxhall (although I’m not overly convinced of the authenticity):

“The whole of Vauxhall roundabout was cordoned off. Traffic was at a standstill. The roads were all taped off. People were standing beside their cars chatting on mobile phones. There were even army officers in camouflage gear.”

Lots of confirmation that something happened. Lots of different accounts. And you know what? Despite all this information, all these different pairs of eyes and ears and nostrils, do we know what actually took place? Do we bollocks.

Well, until you find something like this, that is:

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- There was a security alert at Vauxhall station in south London Friday, BBC television reported.

However, the alert later turned out to be a false alarm, the BBC said later.

In other words, only Auntie knows.

One person witnessing a worrying incident will rarely be calm enough to give a complete account. When there are crowds, they start talking to each other, and in the confusion mistake other people’s experiences for their own. It’s a form of shock-induced hysteria, and perfectly understandable. It does, however, make eyewitness accounts rather less valuable than has been made out over the last couple of weeks.

Likewise, one guy sitting behind his computer in an office (i.e. me, or any other liveblogger of events like these) can never muster the necessary resources to ensure accuracy. Liveblogging is little more than an electronic form of the person in the crowd who passes on rumours – and panic. And although “citizen journalists”, thanks to these limitations, are even more untrustworthy than the big media (even the scaremongering, scoop-hungry likes of Sky and Fox), yet other citizens are far too quick to trust the words of their fellows. Which is precisely why today I was asked by a work colleague “did you hear about the suicide bomber they shot at Canary Wharf on the 7th?” – a (false) rumour which appeared to spread from this very blog.

The short version of the Vauxhall incident?

Someone thought they smelt something, got hysterical and caused a stampede. It was nothing, but thanks to the lightning pace of internet rumour – and the fact that more and more people are turning to the internet (including blogs like this) for information when these things happen – it very nearly ended up fuelling a whole slew of conspiracy theories. Hell, it probably still will…

Bear this all in mind the next time one of these things kicks off. And for fuck’s sake, if you’re on the tube and smell something funny, ask someone calmly if they can smell it too before you start screaming like a rabid spacktard and causing a stampede.

(Also posted at The Sharpener)

UPDATED

(Original title: Clapham Junction alert)

One of the biggest overland rail interchanges in the country. That’d fuck up quite a bit…

More to follow.

10:40 – Not Clapham – Sky News reporting police have shot a suspected suicide bomber near Stockwell tube station after a train was evactuated.

This is, however, coming from Sky, so don’t believe anything yet.

10:44 – reports of a gunfight between a suspected bomber from yesterday and police. Sounds a tad Wild West…

Here’s the Sky breaking news thing

10:45 – BBC confirm train evacuation, say “shots reportedly fired”

10:48 – all reports of a shooting seem to have come from Sky. If they’re making this up they’re a bunch of dicks.

10:49 – Sky speculation goes into overdrive – “If the suspect is confirmed to be a suicide bomber, it would mark the fifth attempted terrorist attack on London in less than a day.”

Yep – because the police are REALLY likely to shoot someone who’s strapped to a load of explosives, aren’t they? Almost certainly one of the morons from yesterday they’d tracked down. (Says Nosemonkey, indulging in exactly the kind of speculation he just accused Sky of…)

10:52 – Reuters still not confirming, BBC yet to get a page up, although train evacuation is still in their ticker tape.

10:58 – BBC page up:

Passenger Briony Coetsee said: “We were on the Tube and then we suddenly heard someone say, ‘Get out, get out’ and then we heard gunshots.”

11:01 – Sky explain their speculation – “Police have been given orders to shoot to kill if they believe someone is about to detonate a bomb.”

Hmmm… Could be fair enough, I suppose.

Still no confirmation of anything else though.

11:02 – Met Police confirm someone has been shot – five times.

11:03 – via the BBC – “Passenger Mark Whitby told BBC News he had seen an Asian man shot five times by “plain-clothes police officers”.

“Mr Whitby, told BBC News: “I saw an Asian guy run onto the train hotly pursued by three plain-clothes police officers.

“One of them was carrying a black handgun – it looked like an automatic – they pushed him to the floor, bundled on top of him and unloaded five shots into him.”

Are you really going to push someone to the floor and shoot them FIVE times if they’re a suspected suicide bomber? Fucking risky, wouldn’t you say? This is more like execution-style…

11:06 – Victoria and Northern lines suspended, and large area around Stockwell cordoned off.

More reports of the guy being shot five times at close range. Ever heard of questioning, guys? That’s bloody ridiculous. Especially close range, if you want to kill them quickly go for a head shot, surely?

This don’t make a lick of sense…

11:09 – Also northbound Charing Cross branch train at Vauxhall? Sounds like it vaguely – police caught a guy with a rucksack, threw him against the wall and started searching him while evacuating everyone. Just the boys in blue being jumpy, or another one?

11:15 – reports of police surrounding a Mosque in east London…

11:16 – Kennington tube also evacuated, apparently. Whether as part of the general shut-down in that part of the south London tube or another incident, not too sure. All these places are relatively close together and I don’t know south of the river very well, so hard to tell. Possible – judging by early Clapham junction reports – that everyone’s a tad confused still.

Guy at Stockwell tube was shot just after 10, at any rate. No confirmation of five shots.

No further info on the Mosque in east London rumours.

11:19 – reports of something happening in Shadwell – east London, so could be the Mosque thing.

11:20 Rob Read at Time Worstall’s place reports Aldgate Mosque.

Now having confirmation – armed police around the East London Mosque on Whitechapel Road…

11:24 – Stockwell was northbound Northern line. Witnesses again mentioning rough handling. Also gunshots sounding like they were silenced. Very odd…

The man has been confirmed as dead. Shot in the head at close range.

Other incidents at Kennington and Vauxhall not confirmed, though there was something at those – possibly just scares.

Police have warned people to stay inside on Whitechapel Road by the mosque. Possible bomb threat, apparently, but no one actually knows what’s going on there. The building is surrounded by armed police though.

This sounds like a swift, co-ordinated mop-up movement to me. Dunno why they shot the guy though – doesn’t make much sense unless he really WAS about to detonate a bomb. But Stockwell’s a pretty shitty part of town to do it. Nearly as pointless as Oval.

11:31 – Highbury and Islington station also shut off. Something going on in North London as well…

11:33 – Robin Grant’s also on the case again, carrying on where he left off.

11:35 – the East London Mosque has apparently been given the all clear. Police were responding to a bomb threat – unrelated to the shooting.

Fascists, in other words. Yay.

11:37 – The Guardian have lots of eyewitness reports of the shooting. Sounds like, although this is confused, not much else is likely to happen.

The mosque thing was an entirely unrelated incident – just some small-brained racist dickhead phoning in a bomb threat after hearing Sky report another attempted suicide attack, most likely. Diverting precious police resources from hunting down the people who tried to bomb us yesterday. Nice one.

11:45 – Robin Grant at Perfect.co.uk reports via BBC News 24 eyewitness – “It looks like the guy that was shot had previously left a bag on a Victoria line train (the one I would have got this morning if I hadn�t been running late), and got off the train at Stockwell – his bomb (in a back bag) then failed to explode (more smell smoke etc) – hence the station closure at Vauxhall.”

11:56 – Lots of speculation in the comments, from SAS involvement to this being a foiled attack on the UK’s spy HQ. But there’s been no new confirmed info for a fair while now. All we know is that a man has been shot, probably dead. And that the police had better hope to buggery that he was what they thought he was.

12:04 – Scotland Yard statement – “A man was challenged by officers and subsequently shot. London Ambulance Service attended the scene. He was pronounced dead at the scene.”

12:08 – More eyewitness accounts from Sky

12:11 – Victoria line is back open, which would tend to suggest that earlier reports of an attempted detonation at Vauxhall tube were nonsense – they’d need to keep it shut to get forensics in there if there’s been another failed bomb.

12:20 – BBC have a more full eyewitness account from one of the same people as before: “He [the suspect] had a baseball cap on and quite a sort of thickish coat – it was a coat you’d wear in winter, sort of like a padded jacket.

“He might have had something concealed under there, I don’t know. But it looked sort of out of place with the sort of weather we’ve been having, the sort of hot humid weather.

“He was largely built, he was quite a chubby sort of guy.

“I didn’t see any guns or anything like that – I didn’t see him carrying anything. I didn’t even see a bag to be quite honest.”

12:44 – No more info, but the BBC have a timeline. Tubes seem to be running normally again – looks like this was an isolated incident, and there’s no ongoing threat. Which is a relief.

Shame they didn’t get him alive though.

13:08 – sod this, it’s all over. I’m off to the pub. Will update again if anything new happens or more info comes to light.

14:43 – still no confirmation on anything happening at Vauxhall earlier. A few eyewitnesses report someone screaming about a smell, and a few unconfirmed reports of smoke – all shortly before the events at Stockwell. This is London has some accounts suggesting that a Victoria line train didn’t stop at Vauxhall, and went on to Stockwell, where those who had wanted to get out at the previous station got involved in the shooting incident.

Considering the guy who was shot was apparently trying to get ON the train at Stockwell, this doesn’t make too much sense. Why wouldn’t the train stop at Vauxhall uness there was some kind of incident? Curiouser and curiouser, said Nosemonkey…

14:53 – Reuters have more reports of this incident on Harrow Road in west London, which first emerged half an hour or so ago. Unfortunately their site is taking a lot of hits and can’t cope. 25 minutes ago Robin Grant noted a guy on the phone to the BBC talking baout police presence, bomb disposal units etc. This is north of Westbourne Park, south of Kilburn. North West London. Neither Sky nor BBC have anything, as yet.

14:58 – Updates from Spain, of all places. Sounds like a transcript of the guy on the phone to the BBC robin Grant mentioned. Bloomberg mentions a spokeswoman (presumably from the police) confirming the road has been cordoned off.

15:05 – More on Harrow Road: “The focus of the police operation appears to be an internet cafe on Harrow Road where two women have reportedly been removed and detained in a police van. Even with the presence of armed police and bomb disposal experts onlookers are not being pushed back which suggests the police do not feel that devices are present at the address.”

15:26 – still no more word about Harrow Road, although in the comments Sean mentions shots fired.

Sky reports the operation is focussed on a Thai restaurant. No news of shots, but reports that two women and a teenage boy have been searched.

15:34 – hearing reports of an incident at Canary Wharf as well – still no confirmation on the reports of shots at Harrow Road.

15:48 – Still nothing confirmed, even though there are reporters on the scene.

Vague thought: Best guess is that the police had a very good idea of who all the people were and were planning a co-ordinated strike, but the Stockwell guy did a runner before they were ready. Now they’re trying to mop up the dregs. That’d explain the lack of any release of descriptions over the last 24 hours – want to put them off their guard.

15:51 – odd. Police will release descriptions / CCTV footage of yesterday’s ineffective wannabe bombers later today, and are appealing for information on all four – which, as Robin Grant has noted, could suggest that the guy shot this morning wasn’t one of them. Possibly.

Here’s the first pic. With that baseball cap he looks American to me… Not the most helpful of photos, it must be said.

15:55 – Guy killed this morning was “linked to” but wasn’t actually one of yesterday’s bombers, apparently. Two more raids (in addition to Harrow Road) have been mentioned, but no locations. May or may not include the Canary Wharf arrest.

16:00 – rumours that Harrow Road may be a bomb-making factory. No idea if it’s in the Thai Restaurant or Internet Cafe though. If Thai, expect clampdowns on middle-aged sex tourists, if an internet cafe on overweight spotty 30-somethings living in their parents’ basements.

16:16 – Perfect.co.uk has the photos of yesterday’s wannabe bombers.

16:20 – God, the interweb’s being slow. Very hard to find more info. No confirmation on locations of the other two addresses being searched. And work is getting in the way of digging out more.

16:52 – Euston station is currently being evacuated, according to Europhobia’s Matt, on the scene.

17:19 – Walthamstow Central tube currently undegoing a security alert – cordons etc.

No more word on Euston. Or Harrow Road. Or anything else, really.

17:26 – there’s effectively been no new info from anywhere since the police news conference a couple of hours back. Rumours all over the shop – including another failed bomb at Vauxhall this morning, Euston closed, Walthamstow closed, Watford closed – but absolutely tit all in the way of confirmation about anything.

Seems almost like a voluntary media blackout to keep police operations secret. Which would tie in with my theory that they were planning a co-ordinated strike this morning but the guy they shot spotted them, tipped off his mates and legged it.

It’s going to make finding out how to get home for those using public transport rather interesting though…

19:00 update – In the comments Eric S reports a man arrested in Stockwell, where the shooting took place earlier today, and from where the police believe yesterday’s loser wannabe Oval bomber began his journey. This has been confirmed by police. Stockwell station is still cordoned off, and eyewitnesses from this morning’s shooting are still being quesitoned.

There has, as of yet, been no confirmation of any of the other rumours. These include incidents at Euston, Walthamstow, on a Stratford train, and outside Buckingham Palace.

The Harrow Road incident appeared to end with no arrests and nothing found. Possibly just a suspect package. But it’s still sealed off. Channel 4 News reports that CS gas was fired into a basement flat there, and later, around the corner, the two women and boy were stopped and searched.

There is also a report of an arrest in Birmingham – a man with two suitcases, but no more details as of yet.

19:50 – In the absence of any more actual information, there’s some good speculation/debate at Shot by Both Sides, including this rather fair point from dsquared: “These eyewitness accounts are just worse than useless… I think that this citizen journalism thing is running up against its limitations.”

Agreed – and that goes for blogging these things as well: a frenzied blend of unreliable eyewitness accounts, stories purporting to be from eyewitnesses that aren’t, gossip, rumour and hearsay.

And with that, an end to speculation and to posting for today. Time for the pub again, methinks.

Saturday update: The shot man was not a terrorist.

Those are the rumours so far. Warren Street smoke confirmed by an eyewitness friend of a friend so far. Updates to follow…

Bunch of cunting bastards.

Oval tube as well, apparently. Hackney Road is apparently a bus. Warren Street may be outside, Reuters reporting a nail bomb.

Shepherd’s Bush not necessarily an explosion, just “a device”.

If people have any information about today’s incidents, they are urged to contact the confidential anti-terrorist hotline on 0800 789 321.

13:52 – “Code Amber” official. Tube network being shut down. Sniffer dogs at Euston Square tube. Fire engines at University College Hospital, over the road from Euston Square, 30 seconds from Warren Street. One of the hospitals casualties from the bombings of the 7th were taken to.

The bus’ windows were blown out, but no injuries, somehow. Apparently…

13:54 – eyewitness at Warren Street says it was on a train, Victoria Line. A small rucksack explosion, while the train was pulling into the station. No indication I’ve heard of north or southbound.

Perfect.co.uk liveblogging

14:00 – Oval eyewitness reports of a man dropping a bag on the train. Area around the station being cordoned off. 15-20 police vehicles being reported. Man ran onto the train, dumped the bag and ran off again, apparently.

14:03 – all we have so far is the bus (no casualties reported), smoke at Warren Street tube, smoke at Oval tube. Nail bomb reports at Warren Street still continuing. No confirmation.

14:06 – This sounds like amateur hour again. Shoddy little devices. One injury reported at Warren Street, but no indication of how bad.

Newslinkdump: ITV
BBC
Reuters (currently down)
Guardian
Guardian Newsblog liveblog

Blair has cancelled his agenda this afternoon. In an emergecny meeting with the Safety Elephant.

Hackney bus was a No.26, but it was a pathetic little explosion. Police have cordoned it off, but aren’t approaching in case there’s a larger device which failed to detonate. Windows blown out. Device on the upper deck.

14:13 – DLR is running, most of the rest of the tube network’s a bit knackered.

Yay for cycling!

14:14 – more reports of the bomber at Oval being a fucking pussy, dumping his bag (big black rucksack) and legging it. These guys are pathetic. If you’re going to blow us up at least have the guts to blow yourself up too.

14:16 – Sky reports that armed police have entered university College Hospital. But this is coming from Sky, so take it with a pinch of salt until the BBC confirm it.

14:19 – everything is rumour. It was only 40-50 minutes ago that the first reports came in. At this stage, believe nothing.

Warren Street people in chemical protection suits according to the Associated press, but – if true – likely to just be a precaution because of the lack of any serious explosion.

14:21 – unconfirmed reports of gunshots on the platform at Warren Street.

Believe nothing until it’s on the BBC.

14:22 – looks like the mobile network’s being shut down again.

14:23 – Blair statement at 15:00

14:24 – not too sure why I dashed back early from the pub now. Sounds fairly minor so far – more of a scare than anything. Copycats? Seems a pretty poor effort at mass death and destruction at any rate…

Andrew Ian Dodge also reporting (via Tim Worstall, who may or may not be liveblogging again)

14:28 – Scotland Yard have confirmed an “incident” at University College Hospital. Unconfirmed reports of an explosion inside the hospital buildings.

Yeah – THAT’s brave, isn’t it? Blow up the sick, doctors and nurses? Brilliant…

14:33 – Sky News seems to be working but you can’t trust it for shit.

Looks like there are 3 or 4 suspects on the loose. No descriptions as of yet. The ones from Warren Street and Oval apparently fled out of the main station entrances, so will be on CCTV and won’t get far. Fucking amateurs! What the pissing hell is the point, exactly? Paltry little explosions, don’t even kill yourselves, and do it in the most heavily-filmed city in the world, where CCTV cameras cover pretty much every inch? What the hell are they playing at?

14:42 – two weeks ago we were asking “is this the best they can do?” Well, no answer to that one yet – but it appears it certainly wasn’t their worst. This is – from currently available information – likely to go down in history as the most half-arsed terrorist attack ever.

14:47 – From Sky News – “Victoria Line train passenger Ivan McCracken told Sky News he spoke to an Italian man who witnessed an explosion just after the train arrived at the platform:

“He told me he had seen a man carrying a rucksack which suddenly exploded. It was a minor explosion but enough to blow open his rucksack. Everyone rushed from the carriage. People evacuated very quickly. There was no panic.”

Claim of responsibility from some tinpot terror cell blathering on about “Britain quaking in fear” in T minus 5… 4… 3…

You’d think they would have learned by now.

14:54 – Tim Worstall confirms I’m not mad by suggesting what I’ve been thinking – this could be a far right BNP/National Front/Combat 18 piss-poor attempt to stir up more Islamophobia. It certainly has all the hallmarks – incompetence, nailbombs, running away like big girls… See my post saying the BNP have a lot to gain from last week.

I genuinely wouldn’t put it past them.

15:00 – Blair expected any time, but he’s likely too busy celebrating the Aussies being slaughtered in the Cricket. Which has carried on playing in London throughout this pathetic attack.

The BBC has some pictures of a few Londoners milling about going “you what?”

15:14 – Mobile network isn’t shut down, as I’ve just made a call. Which would tend to suggest they aren’t taking this too seriously.

15:17 – Blair should have been on by now. Still probably celebrating the cricket.

This has got to be a first – cricket more interesting than a terrorist attack.

15:20 – slight delay on this, but via Tim worstall and sky News, police looking for a six foot black or asian man near UCH. I suppose he could have been the BNP’s DJ (remember that? Heh…), if not, perhaps it’s just shoddy regular dicks.

15:25: Katie, Via email – “Neil, biochemist, says: “Okay, all the eyewitnesses on tv are talking about a sour smell. A “bad” batch of TATP will smoulder rather than explode and produce a sour smell and smoke….”

Hmmm… Hadn’t heard the “sour smell” before now… Worrying again.

Also a man has been arrested at the Ministry of Defence, apparently…

15:28 – TATP is triacetone triperoxide, cheapo homebrew plastic explosive. Not so worried again now. Info: “First employed by Palestinian bomb makers, the highly unstable TATP � also known as the �Mother of Satan� � is difficult to detect by dogs and conventional hi-tech methods, such as nuclear quadrupole resonance.”

15:33 – Blair/Clarke expected soon. TATP thing is entirely unconfirmed. BBC reporting dummy devices. I’d go with the BBC on this.

15:42 – Police are appealing for anyone with mobile phone images, pictures or video from any of the four sites to send in their images via a website.

Blair and Aussie PM John Howard holding press conference. Radio cutting out, so can’t provide live coverage.

15:50 – gist of it – no casualties and the situation is under control. Sounds like early calls of amateurs were about right. Not sure about the reports via Robin of reporters being told to turn off cameras in Whitehall following that earlier arrest. Haven’t heard anything definite from that way – anyone?

15:54 – From Daniel Johnson via email: “itv.. live footage of man being led away by police from whitehall. police pushing camera man away but he stays on the guy as they take him to the side and search him from top to bottom.

“‘situation under control’ but numerous asian people around Whitehall getting arrested, very interesting.”

15:58 – I’ve heard some rumours from a few places now that at one of the other bomb sites there was a caucasian man seen with a smoking rucksack and then running from the scene. A contrast to the black/asian guy with wires hanging out of his pockets reported at UCH. Anyone know if there’s any confirmation to the white guy rumours? Not unheard of for there to be white Muslims, obviously, but would be different…

Still, no one seems to fussed by this again, and the whole thing seems a bit of a damp squib. Whitehall situation still remains interesting though… Probably just precautions though.

16:00 – Reports of police searching people’s bags on Tottenham Court Road. (For non-Londoners – this is the street that runs south from Warren Street Tube, towards Oxford Street.)

16:05 – police have officially ruled out any chemical weapons. Looks like they WERE just duds then.

16:16 – BBC handy summary of confirmed info:

Injuries: Reports vary between none and one minor.
Shepherd’s Bush: Reports of small explosion but details unclear. Eyewitnesses reportedly see man run from scene. Large area cordoned off.
Oval: Man runs off train after a small bang as train reaches station, eyewitnesses reportedly say. Large area cordoned off. Police tests show no traces of chemical agents.
Warren Street: Witnesses report hearing bang at front of train, passengers running to back of train and evacuating at station. Large area cordoned off. Police tests show no traces of chemical agents.
Hackney Road: Windows of number 26 bus travelling from Waterloo to Hackney blown out by small blast. Large area cordoned off.
University College Hospital: Armed officers deployed for “incident”. Large area cordoned off.

16:31 – Wikipedia’s doing well again.

16:33 – One of the men being hunted is apparently “between 5 and 6 feet tall”. That’s helpful…

16:43 – Bloody hell – the traditional media are really into their blogs this time… – Financial Times blog roundup already! (link fixed)

16:48 – this is getting to the “move along, nothing to see here” stage.

Pah – back to the cricket. (Oh, and the job, obviously…) I’ll keep an eye out for any more developments, but looks like this was a bit weak.

Only two suspects reported as being in custody that I’m aware of so far, though, so there’s likely to be a couple still on the loose.

In summary? Amateurs.

15:55 – 39-5? what the fuck? That’s almost as pathetic as these bombs.

17:02 – more reports of St Alban’s station (north of London) being cordoned off. Also (in the comments) – ” Something’s up at Ludgate Hill. City Thameslink closed, St Paul’s Churchyard closed, cops everywhere.”

Hmmm… Have they tracked one of them down? The guy from the bus, maybe?

17:24 – still no more on that St Paul’s thing. Probably nothing.

The sole injury was apparently an elderly woman at Warren Street, not one of the bombers as speculated, but she’s doing OK.

So, you chuck a bomb that doesn’t work properly, hurt a little old lady a bit, and then run away like a big girl – and we’re meant to be scared? Pffft!

Reuters reports a new leak hinting at another “intelligence failure”, this time about how we seemed taken by surprise by the London bombs:

“Pressure on the country’s intelligence services intensified on Tuesday with the leaking of a memo in which they said just weeks before the London bombings that there was no group with the motive and means to attack.”

Of course, it might have helped if our boys hadn’t had their mole uncovered by our closest allies, but still – that remains unproven…

Is this another attempt to shift the blame? We’ve already had accusations that it was thanks to the Iraq war (dismissed by the government, obviously), Islam’s “evil” nature (by idiots), the BNP (my little contribution), the EU (probably) and God knows who else. Why not shunt it onto the one group of people who are doing their utmost to protect us from terrorism?

“Not my fault.” says Tony, “I was acting on the very best intelligence.” – Sound familiar?

Of course, what this could be an indication of (my personal favourite theory) is merely that it’s a piece of piss to conduct a terrorist attack. You don’t need some vast intergalactic conspiracy of bearded men in caves. All you need is some desperate, stupid and psychotic people, access to the internet, and someone with the balls to track down some explosives. Or has every single suicide bomber on the West Bank or in Iraq since the occupation (yet more today, surprise surprise) been part of some vast, James Bond style organisation?

Yes, it’s a worrying prospect that any nutter with a bomb could blow us all to shit. That doesn’t make it not true.

Remember that poor young mother walking her kid who got stabbed in the neck by some random stranger? That could happen to anyone at any time. The fact that it doesn’t is less to do with the lack of vast networks of psychotic knifemen, all planning their next strike in some sinister underground lair, or even with the brilliant job our security services are doing (and they are, most of the time). It has a lot more to do with the fact that the vast, vast majority of people are not sociopaths.

That old IRA quote about them only having to be lucky once was bandied around a lot last week. It’s spot on. Just because a terrorist attack succeeds does not necessarily mean it was meticulously planned. The buggers may have easily just got lucky. It may easily have just been a (relatively) spur of the moment thing.

I called it a while back – wankerish amateurs. The more I hear about our pathetic little bombers, the more I’m convinced it’s true.

So, what’s this “bang” on the tube all about then? Anyone got any clearer idea than “either a bomb or a big crash”? And does this count as Sod’s Law, coming the day after the Olympics announcement?

Update: BBC now reports “reports of an explosion”, and says Transport for London are saying it’s thanks to a power failure. Hmmm… “walking wounded” caused by a power failure?

Fuck: Explosions at Aldgate, Edgware Road, King’s Cross, Old Street and Russell Square.

Unconfirmed rumours of 30 dead.

Piss – Russell Square may have been on a bus.

10:05am – Right – I’m calling this – terrorist attack. Sky News seems to be the only site working. I’m trawling for eyewitnesses.

“I saw lots of people running up a road and then saw the top of a bus destroyed,” one eyewitness told Sky News.

LBC News radio is still reporting “power surges”, but also advising “get away from the City, but don’t use public transport”.

10:15 – Eyewitness reports of “half the bus in the air” at Russell Square. BBC news site down. Radio still confused.

10:20 – FTSE dropping 3%, Pound dropping vs. the dollar. Reports of “at least one explosive device on the Underground”. If you have TV access, ITV have rolling coverage, apparently.

10:24 – Scotland Yard confirm bus explosion on Tavistock Place nr Russell Square, and “multiple” explosions across London. Bus system shut down as well now. This is major.

10:26 – Rumours of two more bus explosions, plus suspect packages in litter bins.

10:33 – my mate who works in the City didn’t go to work today, so no confirmation yet on rumours that they’re evacuating the Square Mile.

10:36 – Reuters is down. Just before it went was reporting large areas of London being cordoned off. Apparently Sky News’ helicopter is being prevented from filming over Russell Square. Helicopters everywhere though. More reports of “three busses”.

More advice to “get out of the area”, but no indication of where “the area” is – it seems to be the whole of Zone One (where I am).

10:40 – Sky has more on the Bus “ripped in two”, plus

Bradley Anderson told Sky News that he was involved in the Edgware Road incident on a Circle line train.

He said: “We just left Paddington station. About 15 seconds later there was some kind of explosion and we collided with another train.

“We were heading into the station when there was some kind of explosion or something.

“Everything went black and we collided into some kind of oncoming train.

“There was debris all over the trains. They evacuated us.”

10:42 – Trains into London all halted. Marble Arch intersection (one of the busiest in central London for those who don’t know) has been closed. Roads being shut everywhere. Still no real news on casualties. No confirmation on anything other than the bus blast from official sources yet.

10:46 – bus was apparently a southbound 205, from Euston (big mainline/tube intersection) – “packed” with people evacuated from the tube. Reports of bodies at Edgeware Road.

10:47 – People being stretchered off at Aldgate.

10:49 – Home Secretary Charles “Safety Elephant” Clarke speaking at Downing Street. He has nothing of use to add. Surprise, surprise. Sounds worried, though.

10:51 – Upper Woburn Place bus bomb as well, apparently. This is all over. London Ambulance Service getting overloaded – all units concentrating on explosions. Web straining…

10:53 – “Scores reported dead”. Aldgate “pretty grim” according to a mate of a mate – loads of smoke. Here’s how it looks (via Sky):

10:55 – Metropolitan Police say they’d tell us more if they knew what the hell was going on. Tony Blair to address the nation shortly. I’m rather glad I cycled to work today…

Unconfirmed reports of “a number” of dead at Russell Square.

10:59 – my overlords have just realised the office is half empty and are trying to find out where everyone is. On the ball here…

11:02 – BBC World Service is back up

British Telecom are apparently going to shut down all phone lines soon, so I may go offline without warning.

Controlled explosions apparently expected at Russell Square soon.

11:04 – reports of a bus explosion at South Kensington. Three minutes’ walk away. Nice.

11:08 – Blair expected within half an hour from Gleneagles. THAT’ll help. Cheers Tone.

Haven’t seen a bus go by in half an hour or more. Everyone walking and looking a tad worried.

11:10 – eyewitness confirmation from a friend – the entire top of the bus in Russell Square has been ripped off. Packed with people evacuated from Euston. Cunning, abject bastards.

11:12 – Hearing rumours of Brighton and Swindon stations being hit as well. they’ve gone to the provinces. Fuck.

11:15 – The Guardian also liveblogging

11:17 –

11:18 – America’s waking up to the news

11:25 – The BBC have eyewitness stories: “The doors opened and as everyone was starting to get off, I saw a few lights starting to flicker overhead and then there was an explosion on the opposite side to me, just behind the train that had just pulled in.”

Now reports of 90 “casualties” from Aldgate East alone. Mostly stretchers, no idea how many dead.

11:32 – Photos. Reports of the army being deployed all over now. Quiet in Chelsea at the moment – bar the reports of a bomb on a bus up the road. Didn’t hear anything, but South Ken cordoned off apparently.

11:49 – just popped out for a fag. Busses are still running where I am after all. Rather them than me… Two bombs on my route home, so I guess I’m stuck here for a while. Internet still up. Comments section seems to be having updates as well if it cuts out.

11:51 – reports of “many” people with limbs missing arriving at hospitals.

11:53 – At King’s Cross, scene of one of the worst Underground disasters ever back in the late 1980s, people were using umbrellas to smash windows of the trains. 95 casualties and one confirmed fatality being reported from Aldgate East now.

11:58 – Email from an Israeli friend (Gaza strip) saying “Fuck”. Which says something… Blair expected in the next couple of minutes.

12:01 – 2 confirmed deaths now, via the Met Police. Certain to rise. Could be worse than Madrid.

12:02 – Blair – “It’s reasonably clear that there has been a series of terrorist attacks in London. It is my intention to leave the G8 to talk to police and emergency services personnel face to face… The G8 leaders will continue in my absence… Each of the countries around that table have some experience of terrorism… They all share our complete resolution for the defeat of terrorism. It is particularly barbaric that this has happened on the day people are meeting to try and help the problem of poverty in Africa… Just as it is reasonably clear that this is a terrorist attack… it is reasonably clear it has been timed to coincide with the opening of the G8… It is important, however, that the terrorists realise our determination to defend our values and our way of life is greater than their determination to cause the death and destruction of innocent people and impose their extremism on the world. It is our determination that they will never succeed in destroying what we have here in this country and in other civilised countries around the world.”

Looked and sounded shaken. Not surprising really.

12:06 – we may be getting moved away from the windows here shortly, as there’s a bus route outside, so I may be away from the computer. Will warn if so.

12:10 – via a Red Cross worker in the comments: “We have already deployed 10 ambulances in response to a request from the London Ambulance Service and another 14 are on standby across South Eastern Territory. Updates will be posted on RedRoom and the website.”

12:12 – bus explosion may have been a suicide bomber, according to reports.

12:15 – rumours of Al Quaida caim of responsibility. Well, they would, wouldn’t they? Twats.

12:20 – Tim Worstall has lots of links to more blog coverage if I get cut off.

12:25 – reports of trapped tube train at King’s Cross, major rescue operation underway. Phone networks pretty much all screwed. Official advice – stay where you are.

12:29 –

12:31 – in the comments, a report of another explosion – this time in Leicester Square. About half a mile from Downing Street.

12:34 – from the comments: ” Someone here at work has just been phoned by a guy he knows in Canary Wharf (I know, it’s a bit removed – but I trust him)

“He says marines have shot a man there who they think to have been a suicide bomber”

Workmate’s husband reports Cambridge Circus – slap bang in the heart of the West End – has been completely shut down. That’s just north of Leicester Square, so explosion report there may have been a controlled one.

12:37 – Leicester Square rumour is nonsense.

12:42 – Soho seems to have been cordoned off to act as Army HQ. Have heard nothing from my mate who works for Sony there.

12:47 – South Kensington may just be a suspect package. Canary Wharf apparently calm – shooting rumour may be jus that – there’s a lot of it about.

12:52 – Military are apparently denying all rumours they’re involved. Purely a civilian thing – at the moment.

12:53 – Robin grant also liveblogging

12:54 – Charles Clarke statement in House of Commons: “Metropolitan Police are in operational command… The Underground is closed and will remain so for some time… There are no busses in central London… Airports are operating normally… The Prime Minister is returning to London.”

12:58 – When the site’s working, the BBC’s coverage is pretty good – fewer sensationalist attempts at scoops, more facts. For a kind of BBC liveblog, try here.

13:01 – God, us Brits are great. Hardly any panic – more just getting pissed off that it’s going to be a bugger getting home. I love this country sometimes.

13:04 From the comments, via Justin, the supposed Al Quaida statement:

Jamaat al-Tandheem Al-Sierri (secret organization group)
Organization of Qaeda’t al-Jihad in Europe

In the name of God the most merciful…

Rejoice the nation of Islam, rejoice nation of Arabs, the time of revenge has come for the crusaders’ Zionist British government.

As retaliation for the massacres which the British commit in Iraq and Afghanistan, the mujahideen have successfully done it this time in London.

And this is Britain now burning from fear and panic from the north to the south, from the east to the west.

We have warned the brutish governments and British nation many times.

And here we are, we have done what we have promised. We have done a military operation after heavy work and planning, which the mujahideen have done, and it has taken a long time to ensure the success of this operation.

And we still warn the government of Denmark and Italy, all the crusader governments, that they will have the same punishment if they do not pull their forces out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

So beware.

Thursday 7/7/2005
Jamaat al-Tandheem Al-Sierri (secret organization group)
Organization of al Qaeda’t al-Jihad in Europe.

13:12 – From Tim Worstall’s comments section, “Bart from Kansas” earns my “insensitive cunt of the day” award. From the comments here, “Roger” earns the “stupid fucking reaction of the day” award. Yeah – let’s burn some mosques, Roger. Fucking GENIUS. Moron.

13:17 – from the comments, reports that Soho is NOT closed off. All normal.

13:18 – FTSE down 115. Traders being asked to calm the fuck down. Everyone else relaxed.

13:27 – Wikipedia’s got loads. And some good analysis via email from Daniel Johnson:

A brief summation of where we seem to stand based on my attempt at rational thought:

First of all; it seems the new channels, in particular the BBC are reluctant to get involved here.. the BBC didn’t even broadcast Tony Blair’s 1pm statement with the G8 leaders. Blair, Hoon, Davis, the police etc seem to be focusing their energy on the PR front to comforting British residents. Our TV screens are filled with calm police officers offering directions and people calmly going about their business. We’re not being told anything.

The mujahideen have accepted responsibility – a claim which I don’t think holds weight at the moment.. it was inevitable that some small Far Eastern group would.. I’d wait for police reports and word from the government on this.

It also appears that nothing has actually happened since 11am. There are rumours of packages in Tottenham Court Road, the Royal Bank of Scotland hiding their staff in a basement, Soho being used as an Army base, explosions on the M25 (a weird one). Not wishing to tempt fate, but it seems quite possible that all of these could be rumours, much like the planes that were headed into Canary Wharf and Westminster on 9/11 – Somewhere between panick and misplaced excitement comes a million different rumours.

However there does seem to be a bit of a paradoxical thing happening. The broadcasters are holding back – reluctant to report news and instead focusing on reporting on the good work of the emergency services (from eye witness accounts and personally talking to people on the phone, the services are doing a great job and we should be incredibly proud). So they’re very calm- but the public is spinning the rumour mill.. before long I’m sure we’ll get IRA rumours, G8 rebels, etc- we should take comfort in the fact that the leaders of the free world are all together in a room, our emergency services are doing an amazing job – and the majority of scare-mongering rumours appear to be just that.

I’m off for some lunch (and a soothing pint) – back shortly.

14:05 – I tell you what, if this is an “Islamic” terrorist attack, they’re doing a piss-poor job. The pubs are all packed out, people sipping their pints happily, all a tad pissed off, but basically fine with it. Nice one, Al Quaeda – you profess to be from a teetotal religion, and you’ve given the pub trade a massive mid-week boost. Result.

14:12 – update on the “insensitive cunt of the day” award – a new winner – Mike from New York, in the comments to this post. What a twat. I’d kiindly suggest, Mike old bean, that you go fuck yourself.

14:17 – and, for the record, the anonymous comments purporting to be from celebrating Muslims appear to be coming from the same computer as that from which Mike was posting. Nice one, Mike, you tit.

14:21 – bomb in Tavistock Square bus in the upper back of the thing. Met Police refuse to confirm it was a suicide attack. Fucked-up pictures fo the damage here and here. Christ…

14:28 – I’ve still only heard 45 dead tops (via the untrustworthy/sensationalist Sky – BBC’s last report I heard was 24). Lots more injured, but reports from hospitals suggest that despite earlier reports most are walking wounded. Could be a surprisingly low body count.

14:40 – more, from the comments and Guardian Newsblog – “Ambulance sources suggest 23 people have been killed at King’s Cross, nine at Edgware road, seven at Aldgate, two at Russell Square. There are hundreds – possibly more than a thousand – injured.”

14:42 – Slideshow of images. Worrying viewing – especially if you know and love this city well. But, at least in terms of death toll, so far we seem to have got off lightly.

14:53 – It all seems to have calmed down. For more blog coverage, check out the Kinja digest someone’s set up.

14:58 – Victoria, Paddington and Euston stations have re-opened. Looks like King’s Cross will be shut for a while.

15:05 – Now that it’s calm, people are starting to head home… Not entirely sure what route I can take considering I go via South Kensington and Edgeware Road, but still – the joys of a bike, eh? Sidestreets and ignoring one-way systems ahoy!

15:12 – the people who were trapped underground at King’s Cross are apparently just getting out now. No reports on any casualties. But that’s six hours stuck down there. Bloody hell.

15:13 – King’s Cross apparently to reopen for overland suburban services soon.

15:33 – Bus services beginning to return to central London, bar the King’s Cross, Russell Square and Aldgate areas. Will be slow and crappy (no change there then…), with extra police etc. to help with directions and travel advice.

15:35 – Met Police press conference: casualty bureau has a technical fault, so no one has any ideas on numbers.

“At the moment we don’t know if this was suicide bombers or just packages left… There is no indication that these were anything other than conventional explosives, but we have no indication of the size or type of device… [CCTV] has been one of our first priorities, as has collecting forensic evidence”

No people are left trapped underground.

“Almost all the system was cleared within an hour… We don’t have any information [about bus bomb fatalities]… The security level in London has been high over recent months. We have had all the security services actively engaged in antiterrorism activities during this period… We are content that the security level was appropriate even not withstanding the fact that G8 was happening in Scotland.”

15:40 – ctd: “We have 11,000 Metropolitan Police Officers on duty in Scotland and 31,000 in London. We have more than enough to cope… we won’t be bringing any back [from g8]… London has always been a terrorist target, and we are clearly shocked by what has happened today, but we are not surprised… we have spent years rehearsing and planning for this scenario… that plan has worked exactly as it should have done”

15:42 – “we don’t have any intelligence about any other devices… but we are making sure that the public transport system is thoroughly searched before opening for business”

15:45 – ctd: “As far as I am concerned, ‘Islamic’ and ‘terrorism’ do not go together… we have received no claims as to who is responsible, so it is too early to speculate.”

“We have no reports of a police sniper shooting anybody today… We understand that a group claiming to be linked to Al Quaida have claimed responsibility on the internet, which we will be investigating, but we have no evidence yet that that is the case.”

Reports of Heathrow Terminal 3 being evacuated (not via the news conference though).

15:49 – ctd: “We had no warning from any organisation”

“During rush hour we would be running 500 trains… around 600-900 people on them”

“We move around 3 million people a day”

15:51 – ctd: “People didn’t panic… people just got on with it… I was impressed with just how calm people were in very, very traumatic circumstances”

We Brits rule.

16:01 – Casualty bureau is up and running – number is 0870 156 6344 – but try family and friends first to prevent overload.

16:05 – official figure is at least 33 dead.

16:15 – I’m going to follow police advice and head home. Should be back online in c.30-45 minutes, depending on road closures. I’ll take the camera, but am going to try and avoid the affected areas as much as possible…

17:00 – back home. Lots of police sirens, little else. As normal. Brits rule.

An observation:

Liverpool St/Aldgate East/Moorgate was all the same incident.
- this is near Brick Lane, with a sizable Bangladeshi/Muslim community.

Edgeware Road
- the heart of a major Arab/Muslim community

King’s Cross/Russell Square and Woburn Place
- by the King’s Cross Estate, with a sizable Bangladeshi/Muslim community, plus the School of Oriental and African Studies, one of the world’s leading universities for the study of Islam (amongst others)

Was this intended to stir up anti-Muslim tension as much as anything? Otherwise the locations are rather bizarre – King’s Cross and Liverpool Street, as major rail termini, make sense if you intend to cause maximum damage/casualties. Edgeware Road is near Paddington, another major station, so that could make sense too. But nothing at Charing Cross, Victoria, Waterloo etc. Nothing at Heathrow or Gatwick either. Odd. Why go for half measures?

Either way, from the casualties so far we’ve got off lightly. Seems like fluke as much as anything.

17:21 – That bus really doesn’t look good. Official casualties from all blasts is still only 33 though:

Shadow Home Secretary (and Tory leadership frontrunner) David Davis on BBC News points out that Identity Cards “don’t prevent this sort of thing”. Considering there was no warning, the police kept warning levels the same as they have been for a month, and no one yet know who was responsible (despite claims), he’s got a very good point.

17:30 – Blair statement – “I’ve just attended a meeting of the government’s emergency committee… there will be announcements as soon as possible… there will of course now be the most intense police and emergency service action to make sure we bring those responsible to justice. I would also like to pay tribute to the stoicism and resilience of the people of London, who have responded in a way that is typical of them… {The terrorists] are trying to use the slaughter of innocent people to cow us, to stop us from doing what we want to do… the should not and will not succeed… When they try to intimidate us they will not intimidate us. When they try to change our way of life it will not be changed. WHen they try to divide us they will not succeed and our resolve will hold firm… Our values will long outlast theirs. The purpose of terrorism is to terrorise people. And we will not be terrorised… THis is a very sad day for the British people, but we will hold true to the British way of life.”

17:43 – a message to our sensible American friends (and others from around the world), many of whom are posting in the comments:

Cheers for the messages of support. London’s grateful. And we’re going to keep our heads. Stiff upper lip and all that – wouldn’t do to get all emotional. Hardly British – and if we stop being British about it, the bastards have won. So we’ll have a few beers, make as many sick jokes about it in pubs up and down the land as we can, and get on with our lives as normal. Other than causing the grief of too many innocent people, these cunts will have achieved precisely fuck all. We shall not be moved.

17:59 – I’d missed this – Eyewitness blogger account of the Edgeware blast.

18:10 – Police report – 37 confirmed dead, including two from the bus. 700 casualties total, “a number” in a severe condition, but “many” got to hospitals by themselves – so total is likely to rise, but no one knows by how much.

18:35 – Just heard that my Sharpener blog buddy Andrew was on the train behind the one hit at Liverpool Street, but is fine – and on his usual form:

“to the terrorist cunts who tried to kill me today:

“Fuck you. You missed me. Better luck next time.”

18:57 – Nice, BBC News special report cuts away to a weather report. Britain, as I believe I may have said a few times today, rules.

19:07 – discussions are underway for a “Fuck you, terrorist dicks” protest/show of solidarity, Madrid style, this weekend. I’ll let you know more when we’ve finalised something.

Trains are running out of London from King’s Cross and St Pancras. 4 trains an hour from Euston. Near normal service at Liverpool Street. Limited services at Paddington. 2 per hour London Bridge to Brighton. Near normal services at Charing Cross, Blackfriars, Marylebone, Victoria, Fenchurch Street (though the latter’s worth avoiding).

Busses up and running, but major delays – many roads still closed. Gray’s Inn, Caledonian, East Smithfield, Commercial Road, all approaches to Aldgate, M25 and M4 out of London are packed.

You can get home, if you’ve been waiting, but it may take a while.

19:16 – Just had an email request for details of how to give charity donations to help the victims. Nothing that I’ve heard of so far. I’d say give it to Oxfam or Make Poverty History – Londoners are fairly well-off. Bunk it to people who matter – the African buggers who were meant to be getting helped out at G8 today. The terrorist bastards have screwed them over more than they have us.

20:14 – Just spoke to my grandmother, a nurse in London throughout the Blitz. Though naturally worried about her grandson being in one of the prime targets, she’s living proof that London has coped with worse than this. We refuse to give in to this sort of thing.

20:51 – Only just found this, but spot on.

21:46 – reports of seven people in intensive care in one London hospital – could be unconscious for days or weeks. Few reports of life-threatening injuries, many reports of lost limbs and emergency amputations.

22:00 – Third Avenue has a good world press roundup, while Yes But No But Yes rounds up blog reactions.

22:31 – The BBC, after a few splutters when the news site went down this morning, is doing brilliantly. Meanwhile, The Guardian has a handy reminder of why we’re used to this shit. And here, for those who care, is an old post explaining why I’m used to this shit.

22:41 – The BBC’s London radio station will be broadcasting throughout the night. Should have travel info for those of us trying to get to work tomorrow. The Beeb’s London site also has more pictures.

23:20 – Nearly time for bed. All I ask is that we don’t forget the others who have died today, from whom those bastard terrorists managed to distract our attention.

Thursday morning update from the Met Police (update: actually, it’s Friday, isn’t it? Lost track there somewhere…): 700 casualties, of which 350 were minor. 350 were taken to hospital, of which 100 were kept overnight, of which 22 are in a critical condition.

There are over 50 dead that they know of. There will be more, but thanks to the nature of the blasts on the bus and between Russell Square and King’s Cross, it’s difficult to count the bodies.

Final update: Sign up to the pledge to join a fuck you, terrorist dicks protest.

Via Political Theory Daily Review, a pdf article providing an interesting (if flawed) overview of the development of the concepts of “sovereignty” and “the nation state” which EU-sceptics often seem to get so worked up about, as well as the concept of international law. There’s also a nice little section on Hobbes, demonstrating that his ideas about sovereignty, contract theory and the individual’s relationship to the state (which seem to have been swallowed wholesale by many EU-sceptics) were very much of their time (although I’d suggest reading a bit of Quentin Skinner to get a more in-depth understanding of the pros and cons of continuing to see Hobbes as relevant to the modern world).

Anyway, I digress. Included in the article was a quote (from G. Kitson Clark’s “The Modern State and Modern Society” in Heinz Lubasz (ed.) – The Development of the Modern State, New York; Macmillan, 1964; pp.94) which is worth reproducing in full:

A Soveriegn State is autonomous, it is the sole judge of its own actions, no appeal lies to anyone against it. The sovereignty of Sovereign States is most often considered in the international sphere, in connection with a State’s autonomy in its relations with other Sovereign States; but it is important to remember that it exists in the domestic sphere as well. In a Sovereign State the subject has no legal right against the State at all, the power of the State is absolute. This is palpably true of the total State, but it is true of the liberal State also. It is true of Great Britain. In Great Britain the subject has important rights against the executive, he can sue the policeman, the soldier, the borough official, Her Majesty’s Government itself, if he believes they have infringed his rights. But he has no rights against the law. In England, a rule which is acknowledged part of the English Common Law or the result of a statute duty passed by King, Lords and Commons, may seem to an Englishman to be absurd, unjust and generally intolerable, but he must obey it or take the consequences. there is a moral restriction on the actions which a liberal state may take against its subjects and it is very valuable, but there can be no legal restriction on those actions.

After recent developments in this country, I for one would welcome legal restrictions on the ability of the state to interfere in our lives through unjust laws. I would like there to be lines in the sand, over which no government can step. At present, there are none. A government could force us all to carry ID cards with detailed information about every aspect of our lives stored in a central database which it could then, if it passed a law saying it could, use for any purposes it so desires. A government could grant itself the power to detain any and all of us without trial. All it would need is a sufficient majority in the House of Commons, and then to wait around for a couple of years if the Lords refuses to pass its legislation before using the Parliament Act to override all objections.

If we ratify the EU constitution, we ratify a document which firmly binds us to the European Charter of Fundamental Rights – out of which the British government has currently opted to enable it to do things which all other signatories of the Charter consider, by definition, to be violations of fundamental rights.

If we ratify the EU constitution, in future no government would be able to deny any of us a trial. No government would be able to pass a law allowing its agents to torture us. We would be legally free from tyranny.

If we ratify the EU constitution, for the first time in this nation’s history the state would ACTUALLY, rather than merely theoretically, have certain definite responsibilities towards its citizens. We would no longer need seventeenth century theories about some mythical “original contract”, nor would we need to continue to repeat – albeit using different terminology – seventeenth century complaints about “the Norman yoke” and various pieces of abject nonsense about the rights granted by Magna Carta (based on yet another seventeenth century misinterpretation of what that document actually means) whenever the state gets out of hand.

If we ratify the EU constitution, the British state – and every state in Europe – would be bound by international treaty never to oppress its people. Considering Europe’s turbulent past, and considering the way Britain currently seems to be headed – surely the state’s sovereign right to persecute its citizens is a sovereign right well worth losing?