London Rolling

I don't really know how the mainstream media was reporting the groups in question at the time but I do know the Provos were rabidly anti-Marxist for most, if not all, of the 70s - it was only the advent of younger leaders like Adams that pushed them leftwards.

... that and members drifting across from avowedly Marxist groups like the Official IRA and INLA.

that came thru when I read some of the INLA pieces that people have shared recently

but details aside, I remember the kind of media-think that mark is talking about. the 70s 'Ra are a possible exception but the globalisation of terror was definitely a thing, iirc Ludlum's original Bourne novel hinges on this kind of worldview

and I strongly doubt the mainstream English audience knew or cared much about the political distinctions between NI paras then or now

yes my formulation wasn't to do with how these groups thought of themselves: it was abt how they were winkled into geopolitics as then understood by the pundits of the day

(deems posted a badly proofed but v interesting 1985 guide a couple of days back to the internal histories of the NI orgs on the ira thread, which backs up what you said -- tho the non-provisionals were very extremely marxist at that point) (and much attention was paid to e.g. where the armoury was being purchased)

tho lol of course the guns which weren't bought from gaddafi's libya were bought from the US

I just saw a Hate Crime Reporting Centre in Keighley, Maybe it was always there and I didn't notice before

Good answers to my halfmusings thanks

Think mark is otm about it more of a seeming powerful monolith post-blair that maybe hasn't been challenged by politicians since as they've all been hyperaware of the benefits of said ceasefire.

Corbyn not having been afforded same and yet succeeding over a continued period serves as a reminder. Maybe his best service throughout his time is how he stands as a refutation of that type of compromise.

An aside, the definition of terrorism that puts front and centre the definition of "controlled by a foreign power" very comfortably describes the IRA/INLA imo but perhaps not sufficiently either

Isnt the other legacy of Blair in terms of the power of the media, or at least the perception of it, the way in which the new labour government made their whole information delivery system so hyper-coordinated with the news cycle? Announcements were timed and leaked with media narratives in mind, and an accommodating knowledge of the requirements of journalists and news organisations to deliver content for particular time-slots (6 o'clock, 9 o'clock, etc.) We're very used to so many elements of this, the advance notice of the content of speeches ("the prime minister is expected to say...") for instance, its easy to forget that the Blair government forged a fairly novel relationship with the press in this country. I think this has encouraged a sense of mutual dependency between press and government, that has given a sense that the press are very much a part of the workings of governmental power. And also an increased desire for government to cater to the desires of the news outlets. You see this very much in the panicked way that Theresa May has sought to assuage Mail-ers all the way, despite the fact that less and less people read the daily mail and those that do are mostly focussed on salacious celebrity gossip where somebody steps out wearing something specific just after divorcing/cheating on/ getting engaged to/ having a fight with somebody else.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/25/demonstrators-confront-police-in-east-london-over-da-costa-death

every police car in SE London is heading to Greenwich, shutting down the entire road network

I got caught in it but was able to get a train. tt is braving the Jubilee to NG right now

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4811588/deptford-new-cross-south-london-police-latest-updates/

met police are claiming that these are measures to combat plans by biker gangs to ride around terrorising everyone with smoke bombs etc

also don't link the fucking sun kthx

Think the police got intel of a shooting in Greenwich but realised after dispatching 30 vans it was the Greenwich in New York!??? #Deptford

— S.T aka SamueL (@ST_AKA_SAMUEL) October 31, 2017

omg

please, please let that be true

no that's absolute bullshit, the convoys in london were on the go like an hour or two before the nyc thing

Possibly something to do with this

Officers will be out across #London during Halloween to prevent crime and disruption caused by anti social motorcyclists pic.twitter.com/oKxiqY4Ljp

— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) October 31, 2017

yeah i saw that. but a massive convoy? idk

Charlton, just now: the sound of a great whooshing, like some cosmic air vent, then Chinooks about the sky. What does it mean, or portend?

this is really awful. 25 years old with outrageously huge potential, my god. Terrible ;_;

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jan/13/model-killed-in-latest-london-stabbing

https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/opinion/this-dire-battersea-power-station-development-is-genuinely-dystopian/10028763.article?blocktitle=Comment&contentID=13641

weird that the previous post is about a model being stabbed as another model's been stabbed, this time in battersea

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/liz-hurleys-model-nephew-miles-repeatedly-stabbed-in-london-street-attack-a3786521.html

I mean everybody is a model now

Huge cloud of black smoke over the Knightsbridgeish area right now. Appears to be the Mandarin Oriental on fire.

southern trains wifi is p good actually

wait

wait

ru here

idk wheres here.

in town for a few hours but wouldnt besmirch a mrs mac day out with ye yobs tbf

I hope you've taken her to the Emirates right now.

alas

ireland -> gatwick -> west end -> gatwick -> ireland. no football, no internet friends

p much

sky news helicopter hovering almost directly over our house wtf

now joined by a police one

Are your neighbours the Vardys?

poll coverage obv

Rolf Harris spotted near a primary school in SE 18

haha it's for Extinction Rebellion shutting down City Airport :D yass you go guys

obviously we were returning there from milan about two years ago to the day and had this been then my tune might have been more 'yass but ffs'

not my problem fortunately

London Bridge cordoned off, reports of gunshots on a bus.

Fired by police?

fuuuuuck

twitter is saying someone with a knife was shot on the bridge

Pics of a lorry across the bridge..

Several men attacking one man according to an eyewitness.

Black Friday bargain hunters gone feral

Working on a street nearby and it has just been cordoned off by police

Content warning: poss body. https://twitter.com/Clarerobbo1000/status/1200420500834603008