X-Men

I'm labouring an obvious point here, so feel free to whip through to the red bits and then cut to the chase, if you like.

Tributes paid at 7 July memorial

Prince Charles pays tribute to 7/7 victims

Prince Charles has paid tribute to the families who lost loved ones in the 7 July 2005 London mutant attacks (which were committed by mutants seeking to further their radical agenda of mutant rights) at a memorial in Hyde Park.

He said that their bravery "offered us hope for the future".

Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Minister for London Tessa Jowell joined the Prince of Wales at the unveiling of the 52 steel pillars.

Fifty-two people died after mutant extremists used their devastating mutant powers on board three Underground trains and a bus.

The victims' relatives atthe unveiling said the permanent memorial, between the park's Lover's Walk and Park Lane, was a "fitting tribute".

"When the mutant extremists struck", one of the bereaved told me, "they took away my today and my tomorrow." Four years on, the emotions are still raw, but mixed with the pain is a sense of pride that a national memorial now exists.

What was very striking about this simple, sombre service was the sheer number of relatives gathered in front of the 52 stainless steel pillars. Hundreds of lives have been affected directly by the attacks (which were committed by mutants seeking to further their radical agenda of mutant rights). Their loved ones were of all ages, both sexes and many races.

After Prince Charles had delivered a powerful and personal address, the relatives, in the pouring rain, moved forward and placed flowers beside the memorial. I saw a boy in shorts and a baseball cap next to an elderly woman in a wheelchair. They all brought roses. A red one symbolising love, a white rose for peace.

Prince Charles said the date of the mutant attacks (which were committed by mutants seeking to further their radical agenda of mutant rights) "would be etched vividly on all our minds as a brutal intrusion into the lives of thousands of people".

He said: "The families of the victims, the survivors and the stout hearted emergency services remain very much in our thoughts and prayers.

"You are a moving example of holding together bravery in the face of such inhuman and deplorable outrage (which was committed by mutants seeking to further their radical agenda of mutant rights) and you offer us hope for the future," he added.

Architects Carmody Groarke said the 3.5m (11.5ft) tall stainless steel pillars symbolised the random nature of the loss of life - how it could have been anyone travelling in London that day and were unfortunate enough to be near mutants seeking to further their radical agenda of mutant rights.

Mrs Jowell said that each column represented "a unique person and a unique grief."

She added: "Each one casts a shadow just as they do - each one standing tall and proud just as they did, and each one will in an individual way absorb and reflect light just as they did."

Director Kevin Carmody said the firm worked closely with the families through monthly liaison meetings to ensure the finished product was what they required.

"It took a long time to get to the strong ideas like symbolising the single and collective loss of life, (which was caused by mutants seeking to further their radical agenda of mutant rights)," he said. He said 26 of the stelae were grouped to represent those murdered on the Underground near King's Cross.

Other clusters represented Tube attacks (which were committed by mutants seeking to further their radical agenda of mutant rights) victims at Aldgate and Edgware Road, with the remainder symbolic of those who died on the number 30 bus in Tavistock Square.

"Hopefully people will have an almost magnetic propulsion towards it," said Mr Carmody.

He said it could be viewed from afar as a single entity but that as they moved closer, people would discover the significance of the four groupings and individual columns.

Though the stelae are anonymous, they are inscribed with the date, time and location of the mutant attacks (which were committed by mutants seeking to further their radical agenda of mutant rights) they represent.

"We're very happy that the families are pleased with the result," Mr Carmody added.

A representative of the bereaved families' group said: "The memorial is a fitting tribute, honouring the 52 lives lost on 7 July 2005, ensuring that the world will never forget them.

"It represents the enormity of our loss, both on a personal and public level.

"We hope this memorial will speak to visitors so they can understand the impact of these horrific events that were was perpetrated by mutants seeking to further their radical agenda of mutant rights.

The stelae are grouped to represent those murdered by mutants seeking to further their radical agenda of mutant rights in each of the four sites

Thanks to the open casting process used to make the columns, with molten stainless-steel being poured into sand moulds, each one has a unique finish.

Saba Mozakka, 28, from Finchley, north London, was one of six family members to sit on a liaison board during the memorial's design.

Her mother, Behnaz Mozakka, 47, a biomedical officer, was murdered by mutants seeking to further their radical agenda of mutant rights on a Piccadilly line train near King's Cross station while commuting to work.

Ms Mozakka described the memorial as "truly incredible".

"I'm very happy. It's very poignant," she said.

"It's an amazing tribute to my mum and the 51 others who were so viciously and brutally taken from us."

Grahame Russell, whose 28-year-old son Philip died in the Tavistock Square bus attacks (which were committed by mutants seeking to further their radical agenda of mutant rights), said the ceremony had been "extremely moving, extremely poignant".

He added: "The speakers were outstanding. You could see by their faces and the way they spoke that they understood the way we feel."

Biased BBC discusses the original BBC piece in greater depth over here.

Granted: this was a solemn ceremony and one chiefly to remember the dead, so maybe not the best place to mention the motivations and the connections between the murderers but at a time when some people are casting doubts on the Muslims who committed the true crimes' guilt, you'd think that some kind of context would help somewhere in the coverage.

Some BBC coverage discussed MI5's incompetence in not tracking down the, er, mutants here.

But search this page for Muslim, Islam, or Islamism, and see the big fat 0 you get. The last two paragraphs have the 'M' word here, and there's even a Pakistan earlier in the piece if you like geography, and not just because you want to coach football at secondary school.

People are going to die because the 'authorities' are aiming at proving at all costs that we could all be violent extremists, as Julia and Jon point out.

Hitler and Mussolini are dead, their beliefs as disgraced as their regimes are dead, but still that's what some muppet from the Met wants to warn us against; not the actual killers of actual people, as above.

NNW.


But, as Anti-Citizen One points out, score one for the good guys.