OT - Manchester again.

[ramAnag]

Bloody hell Swale, I must have almost met you in the Tavern. I was supposed to be there that evening before going to the cinema next door to it, but the bus didn't turn up so we decided to have a drink locally instead. I was also supposed to have been meeting clients in WTC on 9/11 but we rescheduled the trip until a week later. To complete my personal hat trick I walked past the explosive laden white van in St Mary Axe 4 times in tho hour before the CU bombing.

But the IRA attacks, evil as they were, Wer almost "acceptable" in that they were grounded in a "war" between Ireland and England.

Manchester and the like are grounded in a "war" between Israel and Palestine fought out on foreign soil - ie Britain.. It's resulted in the death of 3 British citizens, 2 wholly innocent just living their life, one not so but most likely radicalised pawn (jury is out on that).

If Israel and Palestine want to kill each other to the last man standing, let them but the minute you bring that killing into another country and target innocent civilians, that's where a line is stepped over.

Make no mistake, this is NOT the actions of an odd crazy individual. It's a first step in an organised escalation. So why chose Britain as a target to export war? I'd suggest because all the pro Palestinian protests suggest that there is a level of support in this country for their cause. Many European countries are hardening their stances against Islam egxDenmark, Switzerland, France to cite a few.

But good old Britain can be relied on to tolerate the attack. They're a soft touch, look how many people are on our side. There won't be a purge on the real instigators of these murders.

The protestors maybe didn't themselves radicalise anyone but they have given license to those who do. The issues Are linked through a common ideology i- various degrees of hatred. I don't doubt similar levels of hatred underpin the Israeli stance and if the IDF was seen to have organised a strike on a mosque in Leicester I would be equally angry.

Go steady, Rog. You’ll be a person of suspicion at this rate. Good job CCTV wasn’t up to much in those days!

More seriously, it’s interesting - seriously - that you should seek to differentiate between the IRA attacks and this week’s synagogue attack basically on the basis of the former being more home grown. I don’t think I can and I bet the families of the Birmingham drinkers and Warrington or Manchester shoppers can’t either.

You and I aren’t so far apart, but it isn’t really a case of ‘good old Britain’. Such atrocities do occur in plenty of other places - Germany, France, Denmark, USA etc - too you know.