Gary Monro’s blog

This is the CCTV picture released by police of the four London bombers on their way to commit their atrocity. They are seen here at Luton, en route to the capital.

The BBC says the police have now confirmed the four men’s names - Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, Jermaine Lindsay, 19, Hasib Hussain, 18, and Shahzad Tanweer, 22.

Thier families are devestated by the news their sons were involved in the bombing.

The families of Khan, Hussain and Lindsay have all issued statements expressing their shock and sadness at events.

“Our thoughts are with all the bereaved families and we have to live ourselves with the loss of our son in these difficult circumstances,” Hussain’s family said.

Khan’s family said: “We are devastated our son may have been brainwashed into carrying out such an atrocity.”

Tanweer’s uncle said the family had been “left shattered” by news of his involvement.

Not all the four men fit the stereotypes of suicide bombers as per the Palestinian model - young, uneducated, poor, disaffected.

Khan was married, with an 8 month old baby; he worked with disabled children. Tanweer, a sports science graduate from Leeds University, was playing cricket a few days before exploding himself in a train. He was not employed but helped his dad in the family’s fish and chip shop. Lindsay was possibly the foursome’s leader. He is remembered as being gentle, respectful, well-mannered and clever. He has a child and another on the way.

Hussain possibly had problems at school; he was involved with gangs and dropped out of school with just one exam pass - a GNVQ.

I imagine that terrorist profilers now fear for their jobs because there seems to be nothing in a person’s lifestyle or background that suggests a propensity to carrying out the murderous actions we experienced on 7th July. They either need to rewrite the book - or throw the thing away and forget it. Intelligence, surveillance and the removal of extremist influences - fanatical imams, inflammatory websites, etc - seems now to be the order of the day.

Oh - and an end to this idea of multi-culturalism where everything is considered equally worthy. When people - some wanted for terrorism in other countries - can stand up in Hyde Park and openly call for the deaths of British people without being imprisoned for treason or for inciting violence or hatred we know we’ve taken the idea of the equality of values far too far. British values are best for Britain. Until we assert this with vigour- and back it with law and meaningful action - we cannot be surprised to find others amongst us comfortable in their assertions that their foreign ideas are at least as worthy as ours - if not more so.

A group of abused Kenyan women have set up their own village as a refuge from their men. Jealous of the women’s success the men have raided their village, beaten the women with sticks and threatened to burn down their homes.

The village, which started with 15 women, has expanded to 48. The women earn their living selling coloured beads to tourists.

“We do not have peace in the village now. These men are so angry because we have money and we do not give them any,” said Rebecca Lolosoli, 43, Umoja’s de facto chief and one of its founders.

“We ran away first because we were being beaten and now we are trying to change our lives, we are being beaten again because of how we are doing well.”

Local authorities have promised to investigate, but there is great pressure on police officers to turn a blind eye.

Men tried to copy the women’s success by setting up their own trinket stalls nearby but their attempts quickly flopped. Now the atmosphere is turning ugly again.

“They see us laughing, and they don’t want us to laugh. They say we are too proud because we have money, because we always walk proudly in the road, but I say, what is wrong with that?” said Rebecca Lolosoli, 43, the village’s head and one of its founders.

“This is now our place and we will not run from here,” said Nasara Lekutas, as the women sat in the shade of a wide acacia tree quietly nodding their determined agreement.

German researchers have found traces of cocaine in 41 of 46 lavatories in the European Parliament. The amounts are sufficient for it to be reasonable to assume the stuff was consumed on the premises.

The Telegraph reports:

The claims of drug abuse at the European Parliament complex was greeted with derision by Nigel Farage, an MEP for the United Kingdom Independence Party.

He said: “Given the stultifying boredom of committee work in Brussels, it is hardly surprising. But it could explain the decisions they come up with.”

Actually, since the Parliament doesn’t come up with any decisions itself - the Council does that - I would suggest the drug taking is the MEPs’ way of escaping the appalling reality of their roles as meaningless, unecessary, stuffed suits whose primary job is to create the illusion of democracy where none actually exists.