Article For Folkestone Herald and Kentish Express

14 July 2005

What a week! 

After the euphoria of the news of the Olympics, the eyes of the world turned to London on Wednesday as we all celebrated an achievement against the odds.

Less than 24 hours later, the eyes of the world turned to London for a very different reason.

Words are not adequate to describe our feelings. We grieve and mourn with those who have lost their loved ones. We stand in awe of those in the emergency services and the volunteer organisations who worked so heroically. And we are firm and united in our resolve to defeat the terrorists.

In some ways, the terrorists may seem to have achieved their objective. They certainly inflicted death and destruction on our capital city. They wreaked carnage on London.

But they had other objectives too. 

They wanted to inflict panic on London. In that they failed. Londoners reacted calmly and with determination. They did not panic.

The wanted to undermine our confidence in our institutions, our democracy and our values. In that they failed too.

And perhaps most of all, they wanted to divide us one from another, inciting one section of our community to blame another and setting one group against the other. In this too they have failed.

On Sunday, we had a vivid reminder of the spirit that brought us through the war.

I was privileged to be at Westminster Abbey for the service commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the end of the war and on Horseguards afterwards.

Our country has changed over the years but our spirit and resolve remain undimmed. That is the most important thing to take out of this week’s tragic events.