Terror attack brings gratitude for our region

A man reported to be yesterday's terrorism attacker is treated by emergency service staff at Westminster, London.

When a man in a black executioner's hood is expectantly holding a platter out to you, not putting a pound or two in it doesn't seem an option. Not if you want to walk out of the pub.

I'm told it was probably a pub sympathetic to the IRA cause.

It was Hammersmith, London, 1991.

There was no social media or news websites to learn of bomb scares or attacks then.

In February 1991, Paddington Station and Victoria Station were bombed. One man died in the Victoria St bombing, 38 were injured.

That year, there were 12 bomb scares or detonations, linked to the IRA.

In 1992 before we left, there were about 20 scares or bombings in London. Twenty-nine people injured at London Bridge in February, three killed in April in the Baltic Exchange bombing.

Another person died in October that year, after a Covent Garden pub bombing.

For the most part, my partner and I were oblivious. We were aware that terrorism existed, but never understood the magnitude.

Living near Brighton, our car was once marooned inside a police cordon during a bomb scare. In Brighton, there was heightened sensitivity.

In 1984 the IRA made an assassination attempt on Margaret Thatcher and her Cabinet, at the Grand Brighton Hotel. Five people were killed - but the target was missed.

On our Facebook page yesterday, we remarked that Northlanders were lucky to live in a region not susceptible to terrorism.

One or two people drew parallels with violent acts we have in our community, and suggested we are no different to, say London.

Sorry, but terrorism is a whole other level - there is nothing comparable in Northland.

And hopefully, there never will be.