please empty your brain below
But here in Europe we see just how tough the average Londoner really is, those old stories about the blitz are alive and well.
When self driving cars replace human drivers I imagine this could not happen.
Following the attacks in France, Germany and Belgium - a similar attack in London has been 'priced in' by many people, so there was no big surprise when it happened, plus of course those of us old enough remember the IRA attacks, Admiral Duncan, tube and bus bombings, Woolwich etc.
The only truly scary attacks were the V1 of WW 2, with the dread of the engine stopping near you, then not being sure where it'll land, being supersonic, you didn't worry about the V2 as they blew you up before you heard them.
Of course you may have noticed that after all this, London is still here, so Wednesdays attack was a waste of life on a pointless gesture.
Love the ironic pigeon by the way.
The sad fact is that random violence is just part of city life. There is not much you can do about a nutter with a knife, at least not without imposing unreasonable restrictions on normal life. And then they'd just use a pointed stick.
But there are some defensive things we can do. For example, I'm sure more vehicular barriers will be appearing beside the road on this and other bridges, and in Parliament Square.
Let's hope though that this attack does not inspire knee-jerk legislation, because that would give the perpetrator something they probably wanted.
Where next indeed. It isn't the first act of violence the world has seen, and sadly it won't be the last.
Spare a thought for those who are forced to flee, and those who remain, in cities decimated by years of violence.
A very good point made by Still anon. Defiance is an emotive word which doesn't apply to people like me who just want to get on with life.
Andrew makes a very good point about the war memorials.
I have a friend who is a senior doctor at Kings. Amazingly, he said he's had busier days!
The pictures, with the lack of traffic, made me think of Wordsworth's "Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802".
Next Wednesday major road works are scheduled to begin to add segregated cycle lanes to the bridge.
Unless you completely segregate road traffic from pedestrians - either by banning the former or penning in the latter, this sort of thing can happen.
The Bath tipper truck crash and the Glasgow bin lorry crash both killed more pedestrians (both were accidents, of course). And Keith Palmer was not the first police officer, and won't be the last, to be stabbed in the line of duty.
The defences surrounding parliament did work - the attacker was apprehended by several police officers almost as soon as he entered the precincts. Whether the outcome would have been different if all (or indeed none) of them had been armed is debatable.
Equally, the government refuses to take in refugees from parts of the world where there are levels of death and destruction and terror that we will never understand nor experience.
Definition of ACCIDENT
"an unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury"
Are you suggesting either of those incidents were deliberate? Careless, and avoidable, certainly - but no-one involved in either incident set out to deliberately harm anyone.
As for closing Parliament Square to all vehicles except buses and cycles* there can always be authorised exceptions for specified vehicles such as ministerial cars.
*I fail to see why taxis should be given the same privileges as buses anywhere, let alone where there is a security issue.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39380527
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-38774080)
Same if I conceal my history of blackouts when applying for a job driving a dustcart, and I then black out and kill people, the failure to prosecute the driver in Scotland was a scandal.
The number of terrorist incidents I've been close too in London and beyond is chilling in some respects. But then I worked in the very heart of London during the early 90s and the IRA's almost weekly leaving of an explosive device somewhere. Walked right past some of them, within 30 feet and 10 minutes on one occasion. And twice I was on the bus heading into Manchester when devices went off there. For the sake of 30 minutes...
And I was at Euston when the 7/7 devices went off. I was on one of the last southbound Bank Branch trains, if not THE last that day. The escalator jerked to a stop, the lights flickered. The train 2 minutes later ran non-stop until it had crossed the Thames, then it was everyone off and it zoomed away.
After a while, these associations fade even if the memories don't.
But at least it's safer in London than Aleppo.
It's not a question of how foreseeable the crash was, or how avoidable, or even whether anyone was at fault. It is down to intent. If someone had deliberately sabatoged the brakes in order to cause a crash, then any resulting death would be murder. A manslaughter conviction implies there was no intent to cause harm. And if it was unintentional, it was, by definition, an accident, however criminally careless, avoidable and foreseeable.
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