I’ve been trying to write this blog all week but even though I’ve been blogging about the London bombs on my own personal website, I really don’t know how to start from a student or NUS perspective.

On July 7th, I was meant to be at the East Anglia manifesto to action training in Norwich - plans changed on the Monday, but I should have been getting on a train at Liverpool Street at 9 am. Needless to say, I can’t get over how lucky I am that my plans did get changed - and that’s just got me thinking about fate, destiny and chance - which I won’t go into here.

We discussed the bombings at our first proper NEC meeting of the year at Camden Town Hall by King’s Cross on Monday. Coming out of the tube station was horrendous - I’ve never seen it that quiet, not even late at night. It was so quiet you could hear echoes, and the few people like me who ventured underground weren’t speaking much, just watching everyone around us, keeping our eyes on our neighbours’ bags, ready to leap up and run at the slightest noise. Emerging into the bright sunlight was a massive shock, as all I could see were Missing Persons posters, everywhere I looked. And camera crews, swarming like vultures, catching our expressions, watching us as we tried to walk past the Garden of Remembrance, trying not to cry while being filmed. If the Underground was deserted, the streets were the opposite. Buses, cars, pedestrians, everyone pretending to carry on as normal but in reality avoiding their normal pattern. Bus instead of the tube, walking instead of the bus.

And people’s reactions have taken me by surprise. Take yesterday’s council by-election in Barking and Dagenham. It was called after the death of the sitting Labour councillor and, from speaking to people involved in the campaign, the BNP appeared to be a real threat. But Labour held the seat by over 800 votes, and from what I understand that was partly because the BNP produced a disgusting leaflet featuring a photo of the bombed and wrecked Number 30 bus with the slogan ‘Maybe now it's time to start listening to the BNP’. Or not, as the results have since proven.

Yes, there are some groups on from across the political spectrum who have attempted to exploit the bombings for their own political gains. But the majority of the population aren’t buying it. The displays of solidarity with Londoners has been incredible - and so has the overwhelming condemnation of Islamaphobia.

And in a post-9/11 world (how I hate that term), that’s so important. We know that attacks on the Muslim communities increased after 9/11, and we know that our Muslim sisters and brothers have been at the receiving end of hate letters, arson and other violent and malicious attacks since last Thursday, but whilst a few bigoted groups and individuals might think this is acceptable, the public seem to disagree.

Small comfort to the people who have been victimised, but from what I have seen, the public as a whole don’t just privately condemn Islamaphobia, they are speaking out against it.

It was Londoners who marched against Mosley and the British Fascist Party, and, for now at least, it’s the attacks on London that are uniting us all.

I’ll stop rambling now and offer my condolences to the families and friends of the people who were killed or are still missing.

Jo Salmon
NUS National Women’s Officer
jo.salmon@nus.org.uk

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