Bombs away

GNU BRITAIN

For those of you who are kindly concerned for my wellbeing today, I can assure you that I am alive and well and safe at home in leafy Chiswick.

Explosions have been reported at Edgware Road, Liverpool Street, Moorgate (or Old Street, accounts differ), King's Cross and Aldgate East Tubes and on a bus near Russell Square. The bus, I can testify from TV pictures, has had its top ripped off. At the time of writing, the number of fatalities is unknown.

Ironically, I was in Central London last night, although I was near Trafalgar Square and not near any of the incident areas. Still, there but for the grace of God...

I confess to being one of the people who was absolutely sure it couldn't happen in London, simply because so many Al-Qa'ida operatives live here (so we're always being told) and because the Muslim community in London is plentiful. I assumed they wouldn't shit in their own nest. Perhaps I was wrong - we'll see.

One thing's for sure: behind all the pontificating by cabinet ministers about how their "hearts go out" to the families of the victims, they will be rubbing their hands with delight that they now have the perfect pretext to introduce ID cards and God knows what other restrictions on our freedom. Of course, I shall be asking them how exactly ID cards would have prevented these attacks, and it will be interesting to hear their response.

EDIT: Live blogging of the events at NoseMonkey.

EDIT2: Sounds like at least 30 dead. This is a big one, by London standards.