What will be the Brits reaction to this?

[HockeyMom]

After the inital shock wear off, will they rally round Blair, as this country probably would do towards Bush? Or do you think think their reaction will be closer to Spain's reaction?

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. I think Spain

and the next PM will have a demand to pull out of Iraq

[damntexdem]

10. Oh, maybe they'll react like the Bushistas:

maybe they'll invade Egypt, or maybe Ireland. Nigeria?

Well, OK, they are certainly likely to react better than did the Bushistas. The real question is whether this will finally motivate them to get rid of Blair.

[bennywhale]

14. God, you are patronising and ignorant

[JuniperLea]

2. i hope it firms their resolve

and they stay strong and focused. this should prove to them that a change is in order.

... may you live in interesting times.... ouch!

[Sanity Claws]

3. More like Spain

Where they will track down the people who did these acts. That is how sane people act. Unlike *, who said he didn't care where OBL was.

[lebkuchen]

8. A commentator on CNNI just said the extensions of Al Qaida are stronger

than Al Qaida itself, and that this attack proves it.

Joy

Rapture

[damntexdem]

11. Oh, I still think that it wasn't Al Qaeda -- that it was France.

"That's what you get for beating us out of the 2012 Olympics."

[lebkuchen]

17. I blame it on the UK's freedom

They have too damn much of it.

[Clark2008]

16. But... but...but.... this war on Terra in Iraq was supposed

to cure the world of The Base!

Or maybe that was to get The Base of Republicans some more military industrical contracts to make shitloads of money at others' expenses, including their lives.

I can't remember.

[lebkuchen]

18. War on terror is as "productive" as the war on drugs

Think of all the money spent on both that could have gone to a much better cause, like education of the masses.

[sniffa]

4. bumper stickers and fLags

[bullimiami]

5. they should kick blair the fuck out of office and jail the asshole,

get their troops out of iraq because it is bushs' game and it is not winnable.
then start to repair their relationships with the civilized world.

[whistle]

6. In two to three days after the grieving for loved ones and friends

...and families, I would think that there will be a major uproar against the established party in power which happens to be Labour and Tony Blair as the leader. That political house of cards will be coming down. Then the question will be, what will Bush do?

[tenshi816]

24. There will be much anger

but it's not like we're going to overthrow the government here, is it? A time of reckoning is on the horizon, and this might finally be the thing that brings down Tony Blair as Prime Minister, but the Labour party will still be in power.

As far as Bush is concerned, I will echo another UK poster on another thread here today: we aren't thinking about George Bush. Fuck him. We are thinking about our own dead and wounded and where we go from here. Our elected leaders would do well to take note.

[dogday]

7. They have been thru this before

with the IRA and something tells me they are not willing to do it again.....

[DinahMoeHum]

9. First they'll take time to grieve, then they'll ask their MP reps

to give Blair a vote of "no confidence" and send his "arse" packing.

Well, hell, I can dream, right?

[bennywhale]

12. Niether. We will react with calm, rational determination and give a big

fuck you to the terrorists by not being hysterical and a big fuck you to any politician who tries to exploit it.

We will in short, do fuck all different, except be sad for those who have died and their families.

[BooScout]

13. Blair is going....

...and now it will be sooner rather than later. Look for Gordon Brown to be the new PM withing the next 6 to 12 months.

[lebkuchen]

22. Meanwhile, two thumbs up for French Foreign Ministr Dominique de Villepin

for his compassion toward the unfortunate people in London, and for giving the finger to Colin Powell for his BS intelligence and for undermining the EU when that slithering snake still had a job.

[Junkdrawer]

15. Depends. If they trace it to al-Zarqawi in Iraq, the Brits may cancel...

their plans to leave Iraq.

[getmeouttahere]

20. Well, if that's all it takes...

what would keep BushCo or Blair from simply stating that al-zarqawi is connected, true or not, and repeating it and drumming the war drums until it sinks in...I'd really like to think that British citizens will rise up as one and slay the Blair govt, once and for all (any excuse to repeat one of Lewis Black's funny lines)

[CWebster]

21. Wouldn't that be convenient

Sure would bolster up that sagging war morale.

[no name no slogan]

19. Same as always-- London's been a terror targets since the 1960s

The IRA is still active in Britain, and occassionally bombs a pub, or a tube station, or phones in a threat, too. Terror attacks are nothing new to Londoners, and they've lived with them going back to the days of the Nazi Blitz.

As always, they will carry on in their own way. Stiff upper lip, trying to prevent it in the future-- but going forward like they almost always do, and remaining ever vigilant.

[DS1]

23. I expect MASSIVE protests - and rightfully so

in fact, if I weren't so poor, I'd be thinking about flying back for that very reason.

[Lexingtonian]

25. both, in fairly rapid succession

First there will be a desire to let Blair do the best he can with the situation at hand.

The immediate stuff (i.e. ratcheting up "security", capturing the bombers, and explaining the modus operandi and political rationale) is important as a matter of the grieving process.

But that stuff is not particularly mysterious and superficial. The next step for the British electorate is to decide exactly where Britain is politically misinvested.

And that's where, it seems to me, Blair's governance and the Iraq venture will probably be found to be miscalculations that no longer serve productively in any sense. It will be Gordon Brown time.