I was a mile away but heard the bomb clearly.
My partner was out shopping and was a few feet away from the blast.
In this and other incidents a total of three people died and 179 were injured.
Use of surveillance cameras led to a suspect being arrested.
Boston 2013? No, this was London 1999.
Following the Brixton bomb, further bombs were set off in Brick Lane and in Soho.
Not so much global media coverage and analysis then.
In the London bombings at least the motivation became clear. David Copeland explained that he wanted to attack "blacks, pakis and degenerates". He was given six life sentences.
This was a direct attack on multicultural London. Ten years later Nick Griffin of the BNP complained that "London is another country".
Copeland expressed was surprised, when he emerged from Brixton tube station with his bomb, that he saw so many white people. I take some comfort in this.
London can be a laboratory for the building of multiculturalism. I often ask elderly white people on my estate whether they would like to move away, and most of them now seem content to stay. (That said, I know one couple who insist that Nelson Mandela should never have been let out and should be put back in jail!)
comments welcome
Max
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