London in Crisis?

Barely a few hours after London was seemingly excited with clinching the 2012 Olympics, questions and conspiracies starting floating around. Talks goes round of how ancient the London utitlies system is and how that might possibly lead to power cuts during the Olympic games where time machines would suddenly stop functioning; or about the fire-alarm going off at Westminster City Hall as a result of the French getting back at them.

Yet, I woke up today to the news of the shutting down of the London Underground. Well, its not uncommon that the underground the shuts down, fire and derailment are not that uncommon, but its usually a single or a couple of lines which get shut down and not the entire system itself. It was so unexpected, that I started wondering whether it was all a spoff of some sort.

Then news started coming out of a possible terrorist attack, and until Blair's press statement, I guess everyone was extremely cautious in saying that it was. What was interesting was however, the kind of responses that people had to this incident.

One City trader said: "There is always a bit of a scare when these kinds of incidents happen, especially after the Olympics announcement yesterday. "Everyone is already a bit worried today about the high oil price, there's a bit of uncertainty, the G8 is on today, so there's a bit of profit taking." (BBC)

Another eyewitness, Dorothy Molloy, had been on a Tube train at King's Cross and said "staff just chucked everyone out of the station".

She said staff there had not given any details, but she said two passengers she had spoken to had said they had received messages saying there had been bombs.

"People didn't really know what was going on, they were just huffing and puffing and saying how annoying it was," she said.

"People don't seem to be panicked, but there's so many police and ambulances coming into the areas. People are just concerned, and some are just annoyed at the delay."


I guess if London is to be said to be resilient, it really is. While the buses and tube have all been suspended in central london, life really does go on. Put it simply, its just Business As Usual without the bus and tube for most people.

Of course, there are those who are greatly shocked and worried about the incident, but I doubt that this shock and worry will last a long time; just like the excitment over the Olympics, it will come and go. The vitality and buzz of London never seems overwhelmed by any one event however large or small, and these things are just part of the inner strength that London possess.