Survivors' anger at post 7/7 'let-down'

I said I wasn’t going to shut up about this, and yesterday I asked some of my fellow 7th July passengers what they thought. As you can see, some of us are pretty angry about the post 7/7 response and the lack of a Public Inquiry … so I am sharing some passengers' views here.

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KIRSTY
‘It seems to me that there is a huge case of double standards going on.....if the threat of terrorism is so great that they are prepared to try & introduce laws that seriously threaten our civil liberties....then surely it is important enough to have a public enquiry.....laws aren't going to stop this happening again....but understanding why it happened might just begin to on the other hand....in my experience... I have been involved in terrible events in the past & have researched other similar events which have had public inquiries.....they all identified the 'lessons that need to be learnt'....then they just go & happen again for just the same reasons....they have another public enquiry.....same lessons are learnt but nothing changes......it happens again....and is still happening........and it is a complete waste of time and money..... but I think for the sake of each and every one of us the government needs to do everything they possibly can...and be seen to be doing everything they possibly can...to understand this & show us all that they are going to learn from it.....deep down I think there is a political agenda here, not a public one.....there is too much that would come out that they want to hide....and I'm sad to say that's what I think!’

FIONA
‘My first reaction was, well I'm not surprised. This was closely followed by ‘What's the point anyway?’ Because, as with any inquiry, the Government will come off completely clean of any wrong doing as it is never their fault. We want answers but we won't get them, that's not to say the government shouldn't try, they at least owe us that.

We are constantly reminded that this is the worst peace time bombing London has ever seen, for something that bad there should be an inquiry. People died, families lost someone they loved and hundreds are still suffering. You can't put a price on that but apparently the government can.
Is it any wonder no one in this country votes any more? Is it any wonder we have lost faith in politicians when they do things like this?'

PAULINE
‘I think there should be some kind of inquiry. The public perception is that there has been loads of support for victims...sorry, but have I missed out on truck loads of support that was begging to be used? - I don't think so. In July, I was desperate to get access to counselling and was told that I could go to Victoria to the family assistance centre. I actually said to them, if Icould travel to Victoria from where I live, I wouldn't need your counselling in the first place. My GP told me there was a 4 month wait on the NHS. Thank goodness my employer came up trumps, but they should not have had to intervene -rumour had it that the system was supposed to look after us all. Family and friends certainly thought that was the case until I set them straight. We have just been left to fend for ourselves and that makes me angry. If nothing else, an enquiry would make sure some of these lessons were learnt in case, God forbid, anything like this happened again. I thought there were plansin place for emergencies such as this. Whilst the emergency services did a fantastic job on the day, I have been stunningly underwhelmed by the support offered to victims since. Apart from KCU, which us victims had to set up for ourselves, there has been no support that I have been offered. The "system" has given me nothing... Sorry to rant about this, but I feel exceptionally strongly that we have not been looked after and that the "system" has failed us all.’

JANE
‘I am sure that even if an official inquiry happened they wouldn’t get to how survivors have been ‘supported’. I am still really pissed off about not being invited to the 7/7 centre survivor meeting [despite helping to set up a survivor group for fellow passengers, despite making herself known to the Red Cross and 7th July Support Centre staff, despite turning up to a previous Red Cross-organised ‘Survivor’s meeting’, and having had several telephone calls and email conversations with the organisers, Jane and other Piccadilly line survivors have yet to be officially invited to anything] I feel that I have to be quite determined to sort things out myself. The Government have put it in the hard of charities like the red cross - but - and I hate myself for thinking this - they are being rubbish and are totally disorganised.’



SUSAN
‘Yes - A public inquiry is essential for more understanding of what actually happened. I certainly had no support from any public office- no one has called or written. Also unfortunately the place I was working (freelance contract) didn't consider my situation at all, I was expected to turn up for work AND pay for my own taxis. It wasn't until some of my work-mates made a fuss on my behalf after seeing me wrecked after a tube journey, that they offered to pay for some taxis- no-one suggested that I actually take some time off work. I don’t think that they understood just what we had all been through. It's only now that I am back in the country and not working that the full horror has hit me. Who can say how I will be feeling in 6 months time?’

AMY
‘I personally think there definitely should be a public inquiry.
How dare Tony Blair say there shouldn’t be one. He is the one that got us into this mess by agreeing to go to war.
Also they knew about the bombers a year beforehand. I reckon that is why they are not doing a public enquiry. If they did then a lot of crap would come out that they just don't want anyone to hear. I think we should air our views on this or some of us should. This country always seems to put up and shut up and it is time we did something about it. We are all angry and hurt with the government and what they are doing.’

EMILY
‘I personally think the whole thing is suss - if you think about it there were apparent "power surges" all morning, I was even told there was a fire at Caledonian Road - (funny how on that same morning 4 bombs went off) - to me that whole morning was as though commuters were being put off travelling into London it was as though someone knew that something was going to happen on the underground - how funny we haven’t heard anything about the power surges since!!!!!!! No wonder they don’t want a public inquiry....’

MARK
'Whilst I would welcome a public inquiry, I have to ask myself one question... what is the point?

This government has set up inquiry after inquiry (Lord Hutton's inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly to name one) with Tony Blair's own people in charge, to tell the gullible country what they want them to hear.

The fact of the matter is this one would be no different and the truth will still never come out and vital bits of information kept secret. It makes me feel sad we live in a world like this but politics is a dirty business run by dirty people.'