Plumber July 22, 2005
Posted by Andy Roberts in : internet , add a comment
This is the bloglines plumber, so we are told, and he’s fixing the database. Plumbers are expensive, but cheaper than specialist sofware engineers I suppose. This is only to be expected, now that we have the “mass amateurisation of everything” but is it really surprising that he’s shrugging his shoulders like that?
All my blog are belong Jeeves July 19, 2005
Posted by Andy Roberts in : internet , 2commentsBloglines has decided to throw away all of my RSS subscriptions, all 200 plus many more of them, even the ones I never read.
I’ve been having trouble with net access too, not just in one place. It makes me wonder if perhaps one day we’ll all wake up and the internet won’t be there any more, or perhaps it will be electricity that goes first.
On my way to work thois morning I was thinking about how inept the terrorists are. The IRA were particularly bad it it, blowing themselves up without even meaning to. And this latest lot, well 4 suicides to take out 50+ civilian workers and disrupt the transport system for a few hours doesn’t create the most inspiring spectacle to show for all that planning does it? Not compared with flying an aeroplane full of fuel into a skyscraper. Sitting on a tube or bus with a backpack full of explosives shows real lack of imagination. If you wanted to create mahem and terror the best target would be the water supply. Hijack a few tankers full of the most toxic chemicals and dump them simultaneously into the reservoirs.
I was also wondering how many of the large proportion of London’s population who only gravitated here relatively recently are thinking about how and when they’ll be planning to move out somewhere else as soon as possible.
Why London is a target July 8, 2005
Posted by Andy Roberts in : London , 3commentsLondon is a target because of present and past British governments’ support for American imperialist wars. It goes right back to The 1970’s (and earlier, really) with Margaret Thatcher’s agreement to allow american controlled cruise missiles to be deployed on american bases in Britain. She built a relationship based upon uncritical support for then president Reagan which successive British leaders have continued, to the detriment of the safety of Londoners and millions of other people around the world.
Prime Minister John Major (conservative) allowed Britain to be used as an aircraft carrier for US bombers raiding Libya. He was then instrumental in building an alliance for the first Gulf war, and Tony Blair (new labour) continued the tradition by serving up Britain as America’s closest ally in the invasions of Afghanistan, the second Gulf war and the continued occupation of Iraq.
Terrorism and Imperialism support each other in that the one provides justification for the other, and so on. When the smoke from the explosions finally clears, and when minds clear, some hard questions will have to be asked. It was clearly only a matter of time before the terrorist madmen would attack London. By his actions Tony Blair has placed his people in the front line of this madness. The result was entirely predictable.
The latest atrocity may seem to demonstrate the efficacy of the methods of terrorism. A small group of fanatics with bombs can paralyse a great city. Yet in the last analysis, the terrorists cannot succeed. These insane and barbaric acts only serve the interests of imperialism. Terrorism and imperialism feed off each other. The barbarities of the one serve as the pretext for the barbarities of the other. And it is always the ordinary people who pay the price.
The mass media will now have a field day. Blair and Bush will use this atrocity to try to justify their policy in Iraq and at home. But when people begin to reflect calmly on these events they will draw very different conclusions. The war on terror has not been won. The invasion of Iraq has destabilized the whole Middle East and made many new recruits for terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda. And the world is a far more dangerous place than it was before the invasion of Iraq.
No one can condone acts of violence aimed at working people going about our daily lives. The innocent victims have not been a party to, nor are they responsible for, the decisions of their government.
The loss of innocent lives, whether in this country or Iraq, is precisely the result of a world that has become a less safe and peaceful place in recent years.
It was argued by many that the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attack in Britain. This was well known to ordinary people, and to the security services but tragically, Londoners have now paid the price of the government ignoring such warnings.
We should now urge the government to remove people in this country from harms way, as the Spanish government acted to remove its people from harm, by ending the occupation of Iraq and by turning its full attention to the development of a real solution to the wider conflicts in the Middle East.
Only then will the innocents here and abroad be able to enjoy a life free of the threat of needless violence.
( For many comments and discussions inspired by this same article crossposted on Metro Blogging London please see here )
London Blasted July 7, 2005
Posted by Andy Roberts in : London , 5comments
As news comes in of casualties from coordinated bomb blasts on tubes and buses, everything is now shut down.
I’ve no idea how I’ll get home tonight, or even whether I should try.
The Met Police Commissioner Ian Blair has just been on the television to give three messages:
1. Stay where you are
2. Do not contact the emergency services unless there you have a life-threatening situation
3. He will return with information as soon as possible
Latest news from Londoners on MetroBlogging London
BBC NEWS: Eyewitness reports
Markets fall after London blasts
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