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As we approach the twentieth anniversary of 9/11 – politicalbetting.com

SystemSystem Posts: 11,002
edited September 2021 in General
As we approach the twentieth anniversary of 9/11 – politicalbetting.com

Twenty years on, 80% of Britons still remember where they were on 9/11https://t.co/dz25xBZiss pic.twitter.com/TYdsBpNwJa

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Comments

  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    1st
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    First major news story I first learned of on the internet.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,080
    ….you’d hope that the West would finally learn something from its mistakes.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 113,957
    edited September 2021
    IshmaelZ said:

    First major news story I first learned of on the internet.

    For me it was the Monica Lewinsky story.

    On 9/11 I felt better connected as I had the internet on my Nokia 7110 (well WAP) whilst the internet at work (and elsewhere) buckled under the load.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    edited September 2021
    No pictures just text "Terrorists fly plane into building in US" so I pictured a cessna type plane flying into a 2 story Midwest farmhouse sort of building
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,132
    IshmaelZ said:

    First major news story I first learned of on the internet.

    I was visiting a library in Edinburgh and the librarian at the desk had the net on; he simply turned the screen to me.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 40,950
    On 9/11 I was staying at the Twin Towers (Two Towers, actually - https://www.les-deux-tours.com/ ).

    I had just bought some carpets from the djemma el fna and paid with a bank card. I then called my bank from the square and said to my bank manager please could he look out for duplicate transactions as I was worried about fraud.

    He replied that of course he would but that at the moment they were conducting an evacuation from the building and they suspected 20,000 people had just been killed in NY.

    The remainder of my time in Morocco was distinctly weird with, say, 50% of people broadly supportive of the act. Then again the following day the national newspaper carried a front page article by the king saying that Morocco was a friend of the west.

    I was travelling with a US citizen and we phoned our respective embassies - the UK one said to return home, the US one said to stay where we were.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,080
    Two decades of not being able to take liquids onto a plane, confiscated jam, and the rest. And for what?
  • For me the world changed was when it announced a plane had crashed into the Pentagon.

    I'd been to the WTC the year before but hitting the Pentagon felt like a Pearl Harbour moment.
  • Just got back from a pleasant outing to Herm and went to a cafe - slightly perplexed by very somber mood until I started paying attention to the radio. Went home and turned on TV.

    Was in Paris night of Bataclan attacks - did wonder why streets seemed deserted on way back to hotel. Turned on TV.

    First memory of “significant event” was Kennedy assassination - didn’t understand what fuss was about and why camera was so jerky.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,080
    edited September 2021
    On topic, from one of Obama’s advisors: .. the story of a superpower that overreached, slowly came to terms with the limits of its capacity to shape events abroad, and withdrew in the wake of raging dysfunction at home.

    The final verdict on Biden’s decision will depend on whether the US can truly end the era that began with 9/11 – including the mindset that measures our credibility through the use of military force and pursues security through partnerships with autocrats. Can we learn from our history and forge a new approach to the rest of the world – one that is sustainable, consistent, and responsive to the people we set out to help; that prioritises existential issues like the fight against the climate crisis and genuine advocacy for the universal values America claims to support?

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/10/20-years-biden-afghanistan-withdrawal-ended-9-11-era



  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,080

    For me the world changed was when it announced a plane had crashed into the Pentagon.

    I'd been to the WTC the year before but hitting the Pentagon felt like a Pearl Harbour moment.

    Thereafter, the storylines diverged….
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 40,950

    Just got back from a pleasant outing to Herm and went to a cafe - slightly perplexed by very somber mood until I started paying attention to the radio. Went home and turned on TV.

    Was in Paris night of Bataclan attacks - did wonder why streets seemed deserted on way back to hotel. Turned on TV.

    First memory of “significant event” was Kennedy assassination - didn’t understand what fuss was about and why camera was so jerky.

    Like everyone, I never used to take days off for having a sniffle or feeling like sh*t. On one particular day I really felt awful so called my offices in the City at 6.30am to say I wouldn't be in and went back to sleep.

    I woke up, well rested, at around 9am, wandered over to the TV and switched it on. It was 7/7/2005.
  • If you're old enough I don't know how anyone could forget where they were.

    As a 19 year old when it happened, in a way 9/11 kind of marks a break from the childhood optimism of a post Cold War future (the fall of the Berlin Wall being one of my first political memories), to the grim reality as an adult of a future that would include terrorism, wars and threats unfortunately.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 40,950
    Listening to the new ABBA single Don't Shut Me Down. Undoubtedly ABBA but pretty meh. Could have been released at peak ABBA. After all these years I would have hoped for ABBA 2.0 or something a bit more sophisticated. Like Bowie coming back (how I wish) and releasing Diamond Dogs.

    But it will please purists I'm sure.
  • I was picking my daughter up from school; somebody asked me if I'd heard the news from New York. We went home, turned the TV on and watched it unfold.

    It was tragic to watch, but also rather surreal and incredibly gripping. My daughter (10 then) struggled, understandably, to understand that this was really happening, rather than a work of creative fiction. I did a bit, too.
  • TOPPING said:

    Just got back from a pleasant outing to Herm and went to a cafe - slightly perplexed by very somber mood until I started paying attention to the radio. Went home and turned on TV.

    Was in Paris night of Bataclan attacks - did wonder why streets seemed deserted on way back to hotel. Turned on TV.

    First memory of “significant event” was Kennedy assassination - didn’t understand what fuss was about and why camera was so jerky.

    Like everyone, I never used to take days off for having a sniffle or feeling like sh*t. On one particular day I really felt awful so called my offices in the City at 6.30am to say I wouldn't be in and went back to sleep.

    I woke up, well rested, at around 9am, wandered over to the TV and switched it on. It was 7/7/2005.
    I remember one of the very few times I took a day off - turned on daytime TV which drove me into office next day.

    I remember the initial reports on 7/7 “power outages on the underground” thinking “that sounds a bit fishy”.

    And my reaction when Jean Charles De Menezes was shot “I hope to fiddle they’ve got the right man”.
  • I was picking my daughter up from school; somebody asked me if I'd heard the news from New York. We went home, turned the TV on and watched it unfold.

    It was tragic to watch, but also rather surreal and incredibly gripping. My daughter (10 then) struggled, understandably, to understand that this was really happening, rather than a work of creative fiction. I did a bit, too.

    It reminded me of the Tom Clancy book Debt of Honour, which had a plane crash into the Capitol Building to kill the President.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 91,392
    rcs1000 said:

    Omnium said:

    HYUFD said:

    57% of voters and 88% of Tory voters and 85% of Leave voters back the government authorising the Border Force officials to, in certain circumstances, turn back small boats of migrants
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1436344387185872898?s=20

    It doesn't make it right or practical though. There would probably be a majority of Leave voters in favour of sinking them if they were given that option.
    Its a completely impractical, insane and dangerous idea.
    "Sink all boats without permission to be in UK waters". I think I'd go with that. Perhaps a hundred deaths now, and none in the future.
    I think it would be pretty traumatic for the people doing the sinking. They would, after all, be murdering people.
    You get used to it.
  • IshmaelZ said:

    No pictures just text "Terrorists fly plane into building in US" so I pictured a cessna type plane flying into a 2 story Midwest farmhouse sort of building

    When I heard the Twin Towers had been destroyed (as I'd been at work and somehow missed it until after the fact) my first thought was "well Wembley was scheduled to be demolished".

    Then I saw the image on TV.

    It was just unthinkable before it happened.
  • jonny83jonny83 Posts: 1,261
    I remember coming home from College and finding my family glued to the TV in the living room watching it all unfold. I remember talking to my dad who came in shortly after and one of the first things we said was it was Al-Qaeda. We remembered the USS Cole attack and Bin Laden promising bigger things on the way.

    It's an event that changed the world, much like Pearl Harbor. Worse in some ways as it wasn't a state that attacked but a terrorist group that showed it could attack the most powerful nation on Earth so easily.

    Are we in a better position now 20 years later? I would argue not really, the ingredients are there for the likes of ISIS and Al-Qaeda to reform and become strong again back in Afghanistan. Still plenty of other radical islamic terrorist groups out there that want to launch attacks on the West.

    I think it highly likely in my lifetime there will be another major attack in the UK or in the West, maybe not on the scale of a 9/11 again but coordinated well planned and devastating attacks to cause chaos and terror.

    The Head of MI5 announced today that they have foiled 31 late stage terror plots in the last 4 years, so the threat is very much real:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58512901
  • felixfelix Posts: 15,123
    I came into the staffroom from a lesson - everyone was glued to the box!
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 91,392
    I arrived back from school, turned on the TV, saw images of a smoking tower but was not paying attention, so I then popped in a VHS tape of Friends, as was my habit at the time. So it was some time later I knew what had happened - its surprising we had not already heard earlier while at school.
  • kle4 said:

    I arrived back from school, turned on the TV, saw images of a smoking tower but was not paying attention, so I then popped in a VHS tape of Friends, as was my habit at the time. So it was some time later I knew what had happened - its surprising we had not already heard earlier while at school.

    That makes me feel old, nearly as old when I remember I employ some people who were born after 9/11.
  • I've said this story before, but I was on a bulletin board when someone said that a plane had crashed into a building in New York. I went into the 'wow room' (a demo room with lots of TVs) and watched the second plane go in. It felt odd that friends were in meetings, with no idea of what was going on.

    The next day, I was asked to lead a two minute silence outside the company.
  • stodgestodge Posts: 12,741
    Afternoon all :)

    It was a Tuesday as I recall - I was at work. A busy morning of meetings. I was aware "something" was happening but didn't really take it in until much later after the North Tower had collapsed.

    Oddly enough, 7/7 resonated much more with me at the time for obvious reasons.

    I didn't know Mrs Stodge in 2001 - she would be two years in the future. She hasn't spoken much about it but I know she was in Chicago and struggled to get home and I think she was very alone and frightened.
  • maaarshmaaarsh Posts: 3,391
    Bottas in prime position to take points off Max for the only race of the year, except the brains trust at Mercedes decided to give him a penalty.
  • On the first piece of significant news I heard on the Internet: the death of John Smith in 1994. On the same bulletin board.
  • Rather boringly I was at work, but I do remember initially assuming it had been perpetrated by some sort of home-grown, Timothy McVeigh-ite, anti-government militia.
  • jonny83jonny83 Posts: 1,261
    TOPPING said:

    Listening to the new ABBA single Don't Shut Me Down. Undoubtedly ABBA but pretty meh. Could have been released at peak ABBA. After all these years I would have hoped for ABBA 2.0 or something a bit more sophisticated. Like Bowie coming back (how I wish) and releasing Diamond Dogs.

    But it will please purists I'm sure.

    There is a really good interview on Apple Music with Bjorn and Zane Lowe, (it is on YouTube) where Bjorn explains the process about making the album and what type of sound they were looking for.

    It sounds like Abba and I am glad it does, as nobody sounds like Abba. If it ain't broke why fix it.

    The Visitors is my favourite album of theirs so the fact it sounds like Don't Shut Me Down could have gone on there makes me happy.

    But each to their own and all that.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,848
    I was in the City, watching on TV, and I remember fretting about what the US response would be. One quirk was that I had a meeting in the calendar for the very next morning with Cantor Fitzgerald, who lost many people in their NYC office. The meeting didn't happen.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 91,392

    kle4 said:

    I arrived back from school, turned on the TV, saw images of a smoking tower but was not paying attention, so I then popped in a VHS tape of Friends, as was my habit at the time. So it was some time later I knew what had happened - its surprising we had not already heard earlier while at school.

    That makes me feel old, nearly as old when I remember I employ some people who were born after 9/11.
    Disgracefully young.

    But I'll be transferring to the 35-54 demographic soon, so I'll be old then.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 91,392

    TOPPING said:

    Just got back from a pleasant outing to Herm and went to a cafe - slightly perplexed by very somber mood until I started paying attention to the radio. Went home and turned on TV.

    Was in Paris night of Bataclan attacks - did wonder why streets seemed deserted on way back to hotel. Turned on TV.

    First memory of “significant event” was Kennedy assassination - didn’t understand what fuss was about and why camera was so jerky.

    Like everyone, I never used to take days off for having a sniffle or feeling like sh*t. On one particular day I really felt awful so called my offices in the City at 6.30am to say I wouldn't be in and went back to sleep.

    I woke up, well rested, at around 9am, wandered over to the TV and switched it on. It was 7/7/2005.
    I remember one of the very few times I took a day off - turned on daytime TV which drove me into office next day.

    I remember the initial reports on 7/7 “power outages on the underground” thinking “that sounds a bit fishy”.

    And my reaction when Jean Charles De Menezes was shot “I hope to fiddle they’ve got the right man”.
    Well, it all worked out. For Cressida Dick anyway.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 40,950
    jonny83 said:

    TOPPING said:

    Listening to the new ABBA single Don't Shut Me Down. Undoubtedly ABBA but pretty meh. Could have been released at peak ABBA. After all these years I would have hoped for ABBA 2.0 or something a bit more sophisticated. Like Bowie coming back (how I wish) and releasing Diamond Dogs.

    But it will please purists I'm sure.

    There is a really good interview on Apple Music with Bjorn and Zane Lowe, (it is on YouTube) where Bjorn explains the process about making the album and what type of sound they were looking for.

    It sounds like Abba and I am glad it does, as nobody sounds like Abba. If it ain't broke why fix it.

    The Visitors is my favourite album of theirs so the fact it sounds like Don't Shut Me Down could have gone on there makes me happy.

    But each to their own and all that.
    Yes indeed. It's more of the same which is not a bad thing in many peoples' books.
  • FarooqFarooq Posts: 10,775
    IanB2 said:

    Two decades of not being able to take liquids onto a plane, confiscated jam, and the rest. And for what?

    So that we can all tell one another where we were and how we felt that day. Feels like the most recent time we as a country had a collective emotional experience. Apart from Big Brother VII, of course. That was some crazy shit.
  • NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,263
    My wife and I were staying with the (very nice) British Ambassador to Denmark as part of a 3-country holiday - it was a perk of being an MP that you were encouraged to ask whether the local Embassy could host you. He and I profoundly shocked my wife by immediately going into analytical mode - this is very remarkable, wonder what effect it will have on US politics, must have taken a lot of planning, blah blah. She said "Look, there are hundreds of people dying there, and you're talking about it like a game of chess."

    She was right, of course.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,733
    News from the M6 Toll. They are trialling ANPR as a method of charging.

    I wonder if this will finally lead to the long overdue pricing by length of travel on it rather than effectively charging full price for pretty much any length of journey?
  • jonny83jonny83 Posts: 1,261
    TOPPING said:

    jonny83 said:

    TOPPING said:

    Listening to the new ABBA single Don't Shut Me Down. Undoubtedly ABBA but pretty meh. Could have been released at peak ABBA. After all these years I would have hoped for ABBA 2.0 or something a bit more sophisticated. Like Bowie coming back (how I wish) and releasing Diamond Dogs.

    But it will please purists I'm sure.

    There is a really good interview on Apple Music with Bjorn and Zane Lowe, (it is on YouTube) where Bjorn explains the process about making the album and what type of sound they were looking for.

    It sounds like Abba and I am glad it does, as nobody sounds like Abba. If it ain't broke why fix it.

    The Visitors is my favourite album of theirs so the fact it sounds like Don't Shut Me Down could have gone on there makes me happy.

    But each to their own and all that.
    Yes indeed. It's more of the same which is not a bad thing in many peoples' books.
    I was taken aback a bit at first when I heard the new music. I was like this is incredible for a band in their 70s age range wise who haven't recorded music together for close to 40 years. But then I remembered this is Abba, I shouldn't have been surprised. 400 million albums sold, they are special and there is nobody else like them.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,715
    We had a departmental TV for training which was stored in my office. A colleague came in from another department; ‘Does that work? Something awful’s happened’ .
    So we turned it on and people who weren’t actually working came and watched in horror.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 40,950
    jonny83 said:

    TOPPING said:

    jonny83 said:

    TOPPING said:

    Listening to the new ABBA single Don't Shut Me Down. Undoubtedly ABBA but pretty meh. Could have been released at peak ABBA. After all these years I would have hoped for ABBA 2.0 or something a bit more sophisticated. Like Bowie coming back (how I wish) and releasing Diamond Dogs.

    But it will please purists I'm sure.

    There is a really good interview on Apple Music with Bjorn and Zane Lowe, (it is on YouTube) where Bjorn explains the process about making the album and what type of sound they were looking for.

    It sounds like Abba and I am glad it does, as nobody sounds like Abba. If it ain't broke why fix it.

    The Visitors is my favourite album of theirs so the fact it sounds like Don't Shut Me Down could have gone on there makes me happy.

    But each to their own and all that.
    Yes indeed. It's more of the same which is not a bad thing in many peoples' books.
    I was taken aback a bit at first when I heard the new music. I was like this is incredible for a band in their 70s age range wise who haven't recorded music together for close to 40 years. But then I remembered this is Abba, I shouldn't have been surprised. 400 million albums sold, they are special and there is nobody else like them.
    They have done plenty of projects individually, haven't they? Mamma Mia usw?
  • My 9/11 story is fairly mundane, so here's my 'first news heard over the internet' story:
    In the mid 80s, before the internet or 24 hour news, I was working for IBM (Northern Road, Portsmouth). IBM had two sort-of internet bulletin boards called IBMVM (for mainframe stuff) and IBMPC for ... You get the picture.

    There's an IBM site within sight of launches from Cape Canaveral, so people there would give the rest of the world 'as live' text commentary on space shuttle launches.

    January 28th 1986, I was following the launch of the shuttle, when the commenter said 'something's gone wrong, there are too many smoke columns.' it was of course the Challenger. I told people around me, but there was nothing on the radio news for at least an hour, maybe two. So there's a high probability I was the first person in the UK to know about it.
  • TresTres Posts: 2,161
    I was in my first proper job after graduating, and that day all the management were offsite at a planning event.
    After the first plane hit one of my friends got a call from his mum (like SE) saying what had just happened and so a group of us went into the main meeting room which had a tv and saw the second plane hit shortly afterwards.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,733
    Cyclefree said:

    kle4 said:

    TOPPING said:

    Just got back from a pleasant outing to Herm and went to a cafe - slightly perplexed by very somber mood until I started paying attention to the radio. Went home and turned on TV.

    Was in Paris night of Bataclan attacks - did wonder why streets seemed deserted on way back to hotel. Turned on TV.

    First memory of “significant event” was Kennedy assassination - didn’t understand what fuss was about and why camera was so jerky.

    Like everyone, I never used to take days off for having a sniffle or feeling like sh*t. On one particular day I really felt awful so called my offices in the City at 6.30am to say I wouldn't be in and went back to sleep.

    I woke up, well rested, at around 9am, wandered over to the TV and switched it on. It was 7/7/2005.
    I remember one of the very few times I took a day off - turned on daytime TV which drove me into office next day.

    I remember the initial reports on 7/7 “power outages on the underground” thinking “that sounds a bit fishy”.

    And my reaction when Jean Charles De Menezes was shot “I hope to fiddle they’ve got the right man”.
    Well, it all worked out. For Cressida Dick anyway.
    The extension of her contract is an utter disgrace.
    Entirely typical of the current government though. Look at Spielman. Admittedly she’s never killed anyone through sheer incompetence but as a known and significant safeguarding risk no way should she be in education.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,733
    Tres said:

    I was in my first proper job after graduating, and that day all the management were offsite at a planning event.
    After the first plane hit one of my friends got a call from his mum (like SE) saying what had just happened and so a group of us went into the main meeting room which had a tv and saw the second plane hit shortly afterwards.

    By contrast I was in my room packing up to go to uni.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,715
    ydoethur said:

    Tres said:

    I was in my first proper job after graduating, and that day all the management were offsite at a planning event.
    After the first plane hit one of my friends got a call from his mum (like SE) saying what had just happened and so a group of us went into the main meeting room which had a tv and saw the second plane hit shortly afterwards.

    By contrast I was in my room packing up to go to uni.
    Sometimes reading these posts make me feel OLD.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,733

    ydoethur said:

    Tres said:

    I was in my first proper job after graduating, and that day all the management were offsite at a planning event.
    After the first plane hit one of my friends got a call from his mum (like SE) saying what had just happened and so a group of us went into the main meeting room which had a tv and saw the second plane hit shortly afterwards.

    By contrast I was in my room packing up to go to uni.
    Sometimes reading these posts make me feel OLD.
    Remembering that I saw it while checking Ceefax is what makes me feel old 😊
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 9,688
    ydoethur said:

    Tres said:

    I was in my first proper job after graduating, and that day all the management were offsite at a planning event.
    After the first plane hit one of my friends got a call from his mum (like SE) saying what had just happened and so a group of us went into the main meeting room which had a tv and saw the second plane hit shortly afterwards.

    By contrast I was in my room packing up to go to uni.
    My day off. I was having lunch when I had to rush back to the city and a couple of people I knew died.
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 19,072
    I was in early junior school and I was cross there was no cartoons on TV. I did however stay up late watching the news once I started to grasp what was going on.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,733

    I was in early junior school and I was cross there was no cartoons on TV. I did however stay up late watching the news once I started to grasp what was going on.

    Your junior school was obviously a lot nicer than mine, we weren’t allowed to watch TV during the day.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,848

    ydoethur said:

    Tres said:

    I was in my first proper job after graduating, and that day all the management were offsite at a planning event.
    After the first plane hit one of my friends got a call from his mum (like SE) saying what had just happened and so a group of us went into the main meeting room which had a tv and saw the second plane hit shortly afterwards.

    By contrast I was in my room packing up to go to uni.
    Sometimes reading these posts make me feel OLD.
    You ARE old. :smile:
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 14,878
    I was a post doc in a chemistry lab. We heard something had happened on the radio on the way to coffee. Didn’t think too much at the time. I ended up going to rugby training and missed much of the unfolding coverage. I feel a bit guilty as I sometimes wish I’d binned off training to watch it unfold, as I know it was one of the biggest news stories of my life. In the end watched the later coverage into the night. Can’t believe it’s 20 years.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 9,653
    IanB2 said:

    Two decades of not being able to take liquids onto a plane, confiscated jam, and the rest. And for what?

    Slimmer waistlines?
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,733
    Stocky said:

    IanB2 said:

    Two decades of not being able to take liquids onto a plane, confiscated jam, and the rest. And for what?

    Slimmer waistlines?
    The liquids business is from 2006 isn’t it? When John Reid parked a load of tanks in front of airports for reasons that remain obscure.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,715
    kinabalu said:

    ydoethur said:

    Tres said:

    I was in my first proper job after graduating, and that day all the management were offsite at a planning event.
    After the first plane hit one of my friends got a call from his mum (like SE) saying what had just happened and so a group of us went into the main meeting room which had a tv and saw the second plane hit shortly afterwards.

    By contrast I was in my room packing up to go to uni.
    Sometimes reading these posts make me feel OLD.
    You ARE old. :smile:
    Sometimes I feel my age, sometimes I don’t.
  • Princess Diana's death was an odd one for me. I'd been clubbing in Cambridge, and got a taxi back in the early hours. The taxi driver told me that Princess Diana had been injured in a car crash. When I got back to my digs, I turned on the TV and (from memory) there was nothing about it on (*): it was annoying, and something that we wouldn't dream of in the modern 24-hour news cycle. I stayed up, and after a while it appeared on the BBC, saying she'd been injured. I guess at that stage they knew she'd died, and were just waiting for confirmation.

    People's reactions were very odd. I am generally a royalist, and whilst I thought it was sad, it didn't really affect me deeply. My then-GF's dad was German, and a vehement republican; he apparently cried his eyes out.

    (*) I've just checked, and the BBC News 24 channel started a couple of months after her death.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 91,392

    ydoethur said:

    Tres said:

    I was in my first proper job after graduating, and that day all the management were offsite at a planning event.
    After the first plane hit one of my friends got a call from his mum (like SE) saying what had just happened and so a group of us went into the main meeting room which had a tv and saw the second plane hit shortly afterwards.

    By contrast I was in my room packing up to go to uni.
    Sometimes reading these posts make me feel OLD.
    Sheer nonsense, Your Majesty.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,848

    kinabalu said:

    ydoethur said:

    Tres said:

    I was in my first proper job after graduating, and that day all the management were offsite at a planning event.
    After the first plane hit one of my friends got a call from his mum (like SE) saying what had just happened and so a group of us went into the main meeting room which had a tv and saw the second plane hit shortly afterwards.

    By contrast I was in my room packing up to go to uni.
    Sometimes reading these posts make me feel OLD.
    You ARE old. :smile:
    Sometimes I feel my age, sometimes I don’t.
    Me too. In fact sometimes I feel quite a bit older than I am. Although I don't find things like suddenly realizing that such and such was X years ago does that. It's other more tangible things. But anyway ...
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,603
    I was at school, we got called in for a special assembly and then got sent home.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    Princess Diana's death was an odd one for me. I'd been clubbing in Cambridge, and got a taxi back in the early hours. The taxi driver told me that Princess Diana had been injured in a car crash. When I got back to my digs, I turned on the TV and (from memory) there was nothing about it on (*): it was annoying, and something that we wouldn't dream of in the modern 24-hour news cycle. I stayed up, and after a while it appeared on the BBC, saying she'd been injured. I guess at that stage they knew she'd died, and were just waiting for confirmation.

    People's reactions were very odd. I am generally a royalist, and whilst I thought it was sad, it didn't really affect me deeply. My then-GF's dad was German, and a vehement republican; he apparently cried his eyes out.

    (*) I've just checked, and the BBC News 24 channel started a couple of months after her death.

    That was a Mail on Sunday headline for me - Dodi Dead, Diana Hurt in Paris Crash - the *last* big story I first got from a paper paper.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    ydoethur said:

    Stocky said:

    IanB2 said:

    Two decades of not being able to take liquids onto a plane, confiscated jam, and the rest. And for what?

    Slimmer waistlines?
    The liquids business is from 2006 isn’t it? When John Reid parked a load of tanks in front of airports for reasons that remain obscure.
    To decant the liquids into?
  • As i have mentioned before I was in the US at the time, not far from NYC, and got trapped there for 3 weeks.....a very emotional, scary and uncertain time...some how the Tube bombing in the UK didn't have that effect (perhaps because they happened after) and I am not old enough to remember the regular IRA bombing campaign.
  • paulyork64paulyork64 Posts: 2,461
    I was at Leicester Races and only learned of it when I went in the Tote room and the pictures were on the TVs. No sound though.
  • At the time I was working for an American company with offices in the UK. Work gradually ground to a halt as the news filtered through. Everyone was trying to get on the internet which wasn't working. One of my team managed to get the life feed so we watched as the second plane hit.

    That was the event which drove home to me the power of TV. My then wife didn't understand why it was a big thing until she saw the reports on TV. A friend who didn't have a TV never understood what all the fuss was about.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,835

    My 9/11 story is fairly mundane, so here's my 'first news heard over the internet' story:
    In the mid 80s, before the internet or 24 hour news, I was working for IBM (Northern Road, Portsmouth). IBM had two sort-of internet bulletin boards called IBMVM (for mainframe stuff) and IBMPC for ... You get the picture.

    There's an IBM site within sight of launches from Cape Canaveral, so people there would give the rest of the world 'as live' text commentary on space shuttle launches.

    January 28th 1986, I was following the launch of the shuttle, when the commenter said 'something's gone wrong, there are too many smoke columns.' it was of course the Challenger. I told people around me, but there was nothing on the radio news for at least an hour, maybe two. So there's a high probability I was the first person in the UK to know about it.

    That dates a very short window in time when Europe was hugely behind N America in communications. I was at High School in Canada. It happened in recess between first and second class and was announced over the tannoy. Everyone rushed to the nearest TV to watch it on CNN. Or one of the multitude of other channels we had.
  • And a first Gulf War memory: being in class (geography, I think), and a kid was pulled out to see the head. We didn't know why, but it turned out the MOD had asked the school to inform them that a parent was being sent to the Gulf. Over the next few days/weeks, there were a few more being told.

    I've no idea why it wasn't left to the parent themselves to tell them, or another parent (or perhaps it was, and they went to the headmaster's office to get the call?)
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,132
    IshmaelZ said:

    ydoethur said:

    Stocky said:

    IanB2 said:

    Two decades of not being able to take liquids onto a plane, confiscated jam, and the rest. And for what?

    Slimmer waistlines?
    The liquids business is from 2006 isn’t it? When John Reid parked a load of tanks in front of airports for reasons that remain obscure.
    To decant the liquids into?
    Reid's 'tanks' (actually light CVR(T)) were 2003 I think.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/feb/12/terrorism.alqaida
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Perhaps it was ultimately just a rather telegenic event? After all we took out 25,000 civilians in 3 nights of bombing Dresden, so not numerically a big deal. Had it not happened, or completely failed, different flavours of shit would have happened in the middle East, probably just as shitty, and militant terrorist islam wouldn't have gone away.
  • FarooqFarooq Posts: 10,775

    As i have mentioned before I was in the US at the time, not far from NYC, and got trapped there for 3 weeks.....a very emotional, scary and uncertain time...some how the Tube bombing in the UK didn't have that effect (perhaps because they happened after) and I am not old enough to remember the regular IRA bombing campaign.

    The importance of 9/11 was heightened by the visual aspect of it. Underground bombings don't generate as many iconic photos, although the roofless bus was a striking image.
    Images stick. That's a lesson for anyone trying to generate a political effects, however noble or vile your ideology.
  • I also remember being very, very worried on September 11th 2002 that al Qaeda would try another spectacular.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,132
    IshmaelZ said:

    Perhaps it was ultimately just a rather telegenic event? After all we took out 25,000 civilians in 3 nights of bombing Dresden, so not numerically a big deal. Had it not happened, or completely failed, different flavours of shit would have happened in the middle East, probably just as shitty, and militant terrorist islam wouldn't have gone away.

    It did happen in NYC and Washington DC rather than [fill in Middle East city]. The Americans took it very personally. Biggest act of war affecting the US mainland since the Brits in 1812, I think.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,733
    Carnyx said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    ydoethur said:

    Stocky said:

    IanB2 said:

    Two decades of not being able to take liquids onto a plane, confiscated jam, and the rest. And for what?

    Slimmer waistlines?
    The liquids business is from 2006 isn’t it? When John Reid parked a load of tanks in front of airports for reasons that remain obscure.
    To decant the liquids into?
    Reid's 'tanks' (actually light CVR(T)) were 2003 I think.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/feb/12/terrorism.alqaida
    You might well be right. There were so many false alarms to justify passing stupid laws terrorist threats in that time it’s easy to get confused.
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,074
    edited September 2021

    Princess Diana's death was an odd one for me. I'd been clubbing in Cambridge, and got a taxi back in the early hours. The taxi driver told me that Princess Diana had been injured in a car crash. When I got back to my digs, I turned on the TV and (from memory) there was nothing about it on (*): it was annoying, and something that we wouldn't dream of in the modern 24-hour news cycle. I stayed up, and after a while it appeared on the BBC, saying she'd been injured. I guess at that stage they knew she'd died, and were just waiting for confirmation.

    People's reactions were very odd. I am generally a royalist, and whilst I thought it was sad, it didn't really affect me deeply. My then-GF's dad was German, and a vehement republican; he apparently cried his eyes out.

    (*) I've just checked, and the BBC News 24 channel started a couple of months after her death.

    That was the day I learnt I was pregnant with one of my children. I woke early, wondered why the World Service was doing a documentary about Diana, went to do the test and it was only later that I learnt about the accident. Much more interested in my news TBH.

    I found the whole candles and votive offerings that week a huge overreaction. It was as if Britain had rediscovered its inner Catholicism. Reminiscent of nothing so much as those shrines to the Madonna you see all over Southern Italy.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,733
    IshmaelZ said:

    ydoethur said:

    Stocky said:

    IanB2 said:

    Two decades of not being able to take liquids onto a plane, confiscated jam, and the rest. And for what?

    Slimmer waistlines?
    The liquids business is from 2006 isn’t it? When John Reid parked a load of tanks in front of airports for reasons that remain obscure.
    To decant the liquids into?
    Water suggestion.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    I also remember being very, very worried on September 11th 2002 that al Qaeda would try another spectacular.

    That also works for me if you write September 11th 2021. But steering clear of Tavistock town centre for the day is prolly OTT.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,132

    And a first Gulf War memory: being in class (geography, I think), and a kid was pulled out to see the head. We didn't know why, but it turned out the MOD had asked the school to inform them that a parent was being sent to the Gulf. Over the next few days/weeks, there were a few more being told.

    I've no idea why it wasn't left to the parent themselves to tell them, or another parent (or perhaps it was, and they went to the headmaster's office to get the call?)

    Possibly simply last chance to say goodbye in person while the off-going parent still had access to a landline or UK mobile network. Having the spouse do it for you isn;t quite the same thing.
  • kle4 said:

    ydoethur said:

    Tres said:

    I was in my first proper job after graduating, and that day all the management were offsite at a planning event.
    After the first plane hit one of my friends got a call from his mum (like SE) saying what had just happened and so a group of us went into the main meeting room which had a tv and saw the second plane hit shortly afterwards.

    By contrast I was in my room packing up to go to uni.
    Sometimes reading these posts make me feel OLD.
    Sheer nonsense, Your Majesty.
    They certainly make me feel old, and actually how quite young to us oldies our colleagues on here are
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    ydoethur said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    ydoethur said:

    Stocky said:

    IanB2 said:

    Two decades of not being able to take liquids onto a plane, confiscated jam, and the rest. And for what?

    Slimmer waistlines?
    The liquids business is from 2006 isn’t it? When John Reid parked a load of tanks in front of airports for reasons that remain obscure.
    To decant the liquids into?
    Water suggestion.
    Well, you could hardly but it all into a collection of saucepanzer kettles.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,715
    Princess Diana died on August Bank Holiday. I went downstairs to make coffees for Mrs C & myself, turned on the TV and saw what had happened.
    Back upstairs with the coffees and we watched the situation develop on the bedroom TV.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited September 2021
    Carnyx said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Perhaps it was ultimately just a rather telegenic event? After all we took out 25,000 civilians in 3 nights of bombing Dresden, so not numerically a big deal. Had it not happened, or completely failed, different flavours of shit would have happened in the middle East, probably just as shitty, and militant terrorist islam wouldn't have gone away.

    It did happen in NYC and Washington DC rather than [fill in Middle East city]. The Americans took it very personally. Biggest act of war affecting the US mainland since the Brits in 1812, I think.
    The thing i remember being around Americans, it was the fact that their belief that despite violent crime, mass shootings, McVeigh, unibomber etc, that their safety of being in their own country had gone. That foreigners could get to them in their own country in such a massive way. That only happened elsewhere and now they were all in danger.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,080
    Stocky said:

    IanB2 said:

    Two decades of not being able to take liquids onto a plane, confiscated jam, and the rest. And for what?

    Slimmer waistlines?
    I wouldn’t recommend Bavaria
  • As I posted the other day, my 9/11 story may be a bit unusual. I was on a deserted French campsite in the middle of nowhere with my soon to be wife and we knew nothing about it for three days.
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 9,688

    kle4 said:

    ydoethur said:

    Tres said:

    I was in my first proper job after graduating, and that day all the management were offsite at a planning event.
    After the first plane hit one of my friends got a call from his mum (like SE) saying what had just happened and so a group of us went into the main meeting room which had a tv and saw the second plane hit shortly afterwards.

    By contrast I was in my room packing up to go to uni.
    Sometimes reading these posts make me feel OLD.
    Sheer nonsense, Your Majesty.
    They certainly make me feel old, and actually how quite young to us oldies our colleagues on here are
    You ain't old, old bean. Are you going to call the world whippersnapper?

    South Wales beckons.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,733
    IshmaelZ said:

    ydoethur said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    ydoethur said:

    Stocky said:

    IanB2 said:

    Two decades of not being able to take liquids onto a plane, confiscated jam, and the rest. And for what?

    Slimmer waistlines?
    The liquids business is from 2006 isn’t it? When John Reid parked a load of tanks in front of airports for reasons that remain obscure.
    To decant the liquids into?
    Water suggestion.
    Well, you could hardly but it all into a collection of saucepanzer kettles.
    That didn’t work. Make sure it doesn’t become a Patton.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,132

    Carnyx said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Perhaps it was ultimately just a rather telegenic event? After all we took out 25,000 civilians in 3 nights of bombing Dresden, so not numerically a big deal. Had it not happened, or completely failed, different flavours of shit would have happened in the middle East, probably just as shitty, and militant terrorist islam wouldn't have gone away.

    It did happen in NYC and Washington DC rather than [fill in Middle East city]. The Americans took it very personally. Biggest act of war affecting the US mainland since the Brits in 1812, I think.
    The thing i remember being around Americans, it was the fact that their belief that despite violent crime, mass shootings, McVeigh, unibomber etc, that their safety of being in their own country had gone. That foreigners could get to them in their own country in such a massive way. That only happened elsewhere and now they were all in danger.
    A bit of cognitive dissonance there - but I suppose a lot of the day to day shit such as gun crime happens to the poor and disadvantaged. It's not supposed to be the elite who get murdered en masse (though a lot of much poorer workers also died, of course),
  • stodgestodge Posts: 12,741
    Counterfactual historians tend to look at 9/11 a bit like the assassination of Franz Ferdinand.

    One school is that it changed everything, another is it changed nothing.

    The former build a timeline around 9/11 not happening having a chain reaction through Europe, the Middle East and beyond fundamentally altering British and American politics. The latter argue something like 9/11 would have happened sooner or later given the build up of AQ in Afghanistan.

    In terms of 1914, it's one thing to build a world with no great wars (though plenty of little ones) in the 20th Century but that bumps up against the argument war had become inevitable in 1914 because too many important players saw it as a possible solution to seemingly intractable problems or unstoppable trends.
  • Omnium said:

    kle4 said:

    ydoethur said:

    Tres said:

    I was in my first proper job after graduating, and that day all the management were offsite at a planning event.
    After the first plane hit one of my friends got a call from his mum (like SE) saying what had just happened and so a group of us went into the main meeting room which had a tv and saw the second plane hit shortly afterwards.

    By contrast I was in my room packing up to go to uni.
    Sometimes reading these posts make me feel OLD.
    Sheer nonsense, Your Majesty.
    They certainly make me feel old, and actually how quite young to us oldies our colleagues on here are
    You ain't old, old bean. Are you going to call the world whippersnapper?

    South Wales beckons.
    I actually am quite enjoying reading colleagues recollection of that dreadful day

    For all our differences we are an excellent and unique discussion forum
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited September 2021
    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Perhaps it was ultimately just a rather telegenic event? After all we took out 25,000 civilians in 3 nights of bombing Dresden, so not numerically a big deal. Had it not happened, or completely failed, different flavours of shit would have happened in the middle East, probably just as shitty, and militant terrorist islam wouldn't have gone away.

    It did happen in NYC and Washington DC rather than [fill in Middle East city]. The Americans took it very personally. Biggest act of war affecting the US mainland since the Brits in 1812, I think.
    The thing i remember being around Americans, it was the fact that their belief that despite violent crime, mass shootings, McVeigh, unibomber etc, that their safety of being in their own country had gone. That foreigners could get to them in their own country in such a massive way. That only happened elsewhere and now they were all in danger.
    A bit of cognitive dissonance there - but I suppose a lot of the day to day shit such as gun crime happens to the poor and disadvantaged. It's not supposed to be the elite who get murdered en masse (though a lot of much poorer workers also died, of course),
    I didn't say it was logical or rational, but that was the talk among everybody I encounter...really really scared, even if they were in the arse end of nowhere, where more danger of you pissing off a bear and being attacked.
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 9,005
    My brother and I were messing around. He'd just graduated and I was about to go back to university. We'd been playing golf, came back to the clubhouse where someone told him a plane had crashed into the world trade center. I assumed it was a small private plane of no real significance. Went to get changed and then went into the bar where the news was showing the buildings coming down. Couldn't really believe it.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,132
    ydoethur said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    ydoethur said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    ydoethur said:

    Stocky said:

    IanB2 said:

    Two decades of not being able to take liquids onto a plane, confiscated jam, and the rest. And for what?

    Slimmer waistlines?
    The liquids business is from 2006 isn’t it? When John Reid parked a load of tanks in front of airports for reasons that remain obscure.
    To decant the liquids into?
    Water suggestion.
    Well, you could hardly but it all into a collection of saucepanzer kettles.
    That didn’t work. Make sure it doesn’t become a Patton.
    'Tank' of course has the etymology of 'water tank' - that being the code name to try and obscure why large boxy riveted shapes under tarpaulins were being shipped to the Western Front in 1916.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 9,653
    IanB2 said:

    Stocky said:

    IanB2 said:

    Two decades of not being able to take liquids onto a plane, confiscated jam, and the rest. And for what?

    Slimmer waistlines?
    I wouldn’t recommend Bavaria
    I enjoy the food when I go skiing in Austria. I mean really enjoy. And the exercise you get skiing gives me the excuse to be gluttonous. (I used to be said that it is impossible to gain weight on a skiing holiday due to the combination of energy expended and altitude, but I think that is baloney.)

    Can't wait for my next Tyrolean dumplings with bacon and sauerkraut. Yum.
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 9,688

    Omnium said:

    kle4 said:

    ydoethur said:

    Tres said:

    I was in my first proper job after graduating, and that day all the management were offsite at a planning event.
    After the first plane hit one of my friends got a call from his mum (like SE) saying what had just happened and so a group of us went into the main meeting room which had a tv and saw the second plane hit shortly afterwards.

    By contrast I was in my room packing up to go to uni.
    Sometimes reading these posts make me feel OLD.
    Sheer nonsense, Your Majesty.
    They certainly make me feel old, and actually how quite young to us oldies our colleagues on here are
    You ain't old, old bean. Are you going to call the world whippersnapper?

    South Wales beckons.
    I actually am quite enjoying reading colleagues recollection of that dreadful day

    For all our differences we are an excellent and unique discussion forum
    Good place this PB :)

    Well done @MikeSmithson. A bit well done @rcs1000.. Reluctantly well done @TSE.
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,074
    MaxPB said:

    I was at school, we got called in for a special assembly and then got sent home.

    BTW thank you for your apology on the previous thread. Very gentlemanly of you.

    I do not wish to enrage you further on the topic but these proposals will hurt Daughter in multiple ways: on her income, on that of her staff and then on her business. Plus the increase in corporation tax as well. It feels like another hammer blow - on top of the last year and a half, especially after all the hard work she has put in and is continuing to put in to keep her business going.

    It may not be the next Google I realise but three points (1) She has created jobs - and in an area where these are not plentiful; (2) she has learnt a lot about business; and (3) this is only the start of her business career. And the stamp duty holiday has pushed up the price of houses round here too - which worsens her chances of finding somewhere to buy. All this after a time when her social life - even during lockdown - has been put on hold.

    Which political party is on the side of her and millions like her?
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 9,005
    I would also second Philip Thompson's comments being the same age. Strange how we managed to grow up in a benign interregnum between fears of nuclear annihilation and jihadist terrorism.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,733
    Cyclefree said:

    MaxPB said:

    I was at school, we got called in for a special assembly and then got sent home.

    BTW thank you for your apology on the previous thread. Very gentlemanly of you.

    I do not wish to enrage you further on the topic but these proposals will hurt Daughter in multiple ways: on her income, on that of her staff and then on her business. Plus the increase in corporation tax as well. It feels like another hammer blow - on top of the last year and a half, especially after all the hard work she has put in and is continuing to put in to keep her business going.

    It may not be the next Google I realise but three points (1) She has created jobs - and in an area where these are not plentiful; (2) she has learnt a lot about business; and (3) this is only the start of her business career. And the stamp duty holiday has pushed up the price of houses round here too - which worsens her chances of finding somewhere to buy. All this after a time when her social life - even during lockdown - has been put on hold.

    Which political party is on the side of her and millions like her?
    None of them. And that is where the problem begins.
  • paulyork64paulyork64 Posts: 2,461
    ydoethur said:

    Stocky said:

    IanB2 said:

    Two decades of not being able to take liquids onto a plane, confiscated jam, and the rest. And for what?

    Slimmer waistlines?
    The liquids business is from 2006 isn’t it? When John Reid parked a load of tanks in front of airports for reasons that remain obscure.
    I presumed it was richard reid the shoe bomber that led to the liquids ban but cant remember what his bomb consisted of.
  • FarooqFarooq Posts: 10,775
    Twenty years ago

    Agent (whispering): "Mr President, sir, America is under attack"
    Bush (holding a children's book upside down): "I know"
  • Omnium said:

    Omnium said:

    kle4 said:

    ydoethur said:

    Tres said:

    I was in my first proper job after graduating, and that day all the management were offsite at a planning event.
    After the first plane hit one of my friends got a call from his mum (like SE) saying what had just happened and so a group of us went into the main meeting room which had a tv and saw the second plane hit shortly afterwards.

    By contrast I was in my room packing up to go to uni.
    Sometimes reading these posts make me feel OLD.
    Sheer nonsense, Your Majesty.
    They certainly make me feel old, and actually how quite young to us oldies our colleagues on here are
    You ain't old, old bean. Are you going to call the world whippersnapper?

    South Wales beckons.
    I actually am quite enjoying reading colleagues recollection of that dreadful day

    For all our differences we are an excellent and unique discussion forum
    Good place this PB :)

    Well done @MikeSmithson. A bit well done @rcs1000.. Reluctantly well done @TSE.
    I did say that yesterday as this forum documented in the space of a few days a dramatic shift of opinion away from HMG so much so that the Yougov poll just confirmed the narrative that had evolved on here and was not such a surprise
This discussion has been closed.