In reply to:

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I was going to add to my previous message a link to a BBC News page on the Ardoyne/Holy Cross conflict, in which a leading figure said something like "The curse of Northern Ireland is whataboutism, the reaction to any concession that starts 'But what about...' and names some violent event of years ago."

But I couldn't find the page again when I looked. Anyone got a reference?

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Peter, I think that this is probably the page you meant.

I have no wish to get into any discussion about Northern Ireland, since I live here, and could not even begin to pretend to be objective about the place!

I flew over to Manchester on Tuesday morning, and was sitting in a training room on a course when my brother started sending SMS messages to my mobile. The first one said that two planes had crashed into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon (by way of explanation, my brother breaks bad news to me via sms, and it is a shockingly blunt way to do it - I heard that Douglas Adams had died in much the same way) My first thought was that they were small single seater planes, as I had recently been reading of such a collision with the Empire State Building in the past. I think the next message read (and I am quoting as best I can from memory) "Jesus, one tower of the World Trade Centre has collapsed" At this point I have to admit that I thought he was pulling my leg, and I replied asking if he was watching 'Thunderbirds'... I just couldn't believe it was possible that that could really be happening.

On a coffee break I phoned home to see if he was being serious, and he assured me it was all real and was unfolding as we spoke. A few minutes later I got two messages... "The other tower has collapsed" and "Another plane heading for Washington" That last message was just about the most chilling five words I think I have ever read, and I wish I had never had to read them.

When I got to my hotel room later, and turned on the television, only then did I realise that it had happened and I had to believe everything I had learned in what has to have been the most bizarrely detatched experience I can ever recall, getting news like that in sub-160 character chunks is just plain scary. I was glued to CNN & the BBC news for the rest of the night, and indeed every night this week, from 5pm until at least 2am every day. My heart and my prayers go out to everyone across the world who has been directly affected by this (except the bastards who caused it - if they rot in hell for eternity it won't be long enough!)

Relating this whole disaster to events close to home is probably unavoidable to me, but I can't seem to get it in any sense of scale that makes sense to me. I have lived through many years of atrocity piled on atrocity, one side attempting to outdo the other in a seemingly unending cycle, so perhaps I am somewhat numb to it here, but to see those huge towers crumble, and worse, to see people who obviously felt they had no other alternative but to leap from over 1000ft to their certain death was something I will never forget...

My final comment can only be that I firmly agree that whoever planned and carried out this act must be tracked down and removed from the planet with all speed. However, it worries me somewhat to hear my prime minister, Tony Blair, say that he is going to be tough on terrorists so soon after he released bombers, murderers and similar terrorist scum from our prisons to walk my streets, serve in my government, and possibly join my police force... well, I'll believe it when I see it, to be honest... I just hope the American people don't learn the painful lesson that Tony Blair says one thing if it makes for a great speech, but doesn't seem to have the actions to back it up...

Geoff
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Got one of the first Mark 2 empegs...