I was a talk jock on BBC London and we started getting messages that there had been a power surge on the Tube. We all feared the worst but collectively decided not to speculate as to what might have happened.
It was the day after the glorious news from Singapore that London had won the right to hold the 2012 Olympics. The city was on a collective high but as the minutes ticked by it was clear that today was going to be a day of tragedy that we would never forget.
As people emerged from the Tubes they phoned into my radio show describing what they had witnessed, it was chilling then and it is still chilling now. Some of the callers were my colleagues whose first instinct was to get the news out there even though they were shocked, dazed and covered in dust themselves.
London under Attack
Those first eye witness reports were both incredible and amazing as the true horror began to develop as successive bombs went off. It really felt like London was under attack.
My show was extended from three hours to five and we continued to get the eyewitness reports and real stories from Londoners, our reporters and the black cab trade.
I was and still am incredibly proud of my colleagues and the team effort we put in that day and how we informed Londoners, in a much more direct way, about what was happening in their city better than any national tv or radio station ever could.
Remember, this was before smart phones and the extensive use of Twitter and Facebook so there was no social media videos of the devastation and carnage as there would be today.
This was a story told with the power words and BBC local radio. The very local radio that the BBC want now cut to the bone, when it is actually the only part of that bloated broadcasting corporation that should be saved, protected and invested in.
We also brought Ken Livingstone’s speech live from Singapore where he said, “This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful. It was not aimed at Presidents or Prime Ministers. It was aimed at ordinary, working-class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew, young and old. It was an indiscriminate attempt to slaughter, irrespective of any considerations for age, for class, for religion, or whatever.
That isn't an ideology, it isn't even a perverted faith - it is just an indiscriminate attempt at mass murder and we know what the objective is. They seek to divide Londoners. They seek to turn Londoners against each other.”
He was 100 percent correct then and we should remember his words now and act accordingly.
Enemy Within
London did not lockdown, cower or divide on race or religious grounds in fear. London and Londoners, like all Brits, just got on with it, whilst they grieved and mourned.
Also, what didn’t happen was any real so-called ‘revenge attacks’ on innocent Muslims. This atrocity, and others that followed it, didn’t divide us or lead to a race or religious war. Thank God.
There have of course been isolated attacks like the terrorist who drove a van into Muslim worshippers and killed an innocent man at Finsbury Park. Most right-minded people condemned that act of terror too.
However, on the whole the vast majority of the UK public have been both tolerant and united to defeat terror and those who wish to divide us.
Most Brits understand that it is Islamists who want to kill us, not Muslims.
However, they also understand that there is still a very real threat to us from a hardcore ‘enemy within’. This is why they don’t just want to light a candle, change their Twitter avatar and sing Kumbaya after each and every atrocity.
Instead, they want action, not more alarmist nonsense from top cops or politicians about the growth of the "far right".
If there is a growth in "Far-Right fanatics", they should step on them and crush them as we don’t want those fascists living amongst us either.
However, the plain stark truth is that there are at least 3 thousand Islamist nutters who want to do us serious harm and at least 23 thousand who support them are living amongst us.
How Many More Times?
What are we doing about them? 15 years ago, we were clearly not on top of the problem after 9/11 and the question has to be are we now? It appears to me and I suspect many others that we are in exactly the same position. I know we are told that our security services have stopped lots of terror plots but as the cliché says it only takes one to get through doesn’t it?
Why hasn’t this been dealt with over these last 15 years, what an insult to the innocents who died that day.
How many more London Bridges, Manchester Arenas or so-called ‘lone wolf’ attacks do we have to suffer before we actually secure our borders, beef up our security and make sure terrorists are not allowed to have their sentences shortened by liberal judges or the parole board?
Why have we not got the new treason law that Sajid Javid promised ages ago when he was Home Secretary?
Why are we still debating the human rights of people like Shamima Begum and whether or not she can come back to the UK or not or whether the so-called terrorist ‘Beatles’ should have a trial in the USA or not in case the Americans execute them?
The first duty of any government is the protection of its citizens. Can you put your hand on your heart and believe that this has been their priority over these past 15 years?
*Daesh (aka Islamic state, ISIS, ISIL) is designated as a terror group and therefore banned in Russia
