Signs In Shops In England

Samizdata.net ^ | 09/11/02 | Perry de Havilland

[Gumlegs]

Pubs, ladies fashion stores, restaurants, banks, cafes, mobile phone stores, boutiques, gift shops...

If you are looking for the real England, you will not find it in the pages of the Guardian, but rather on the high streets and in the shop windows.

I have just got back from lunch and what I saw on the King's Road in Chelsea, here in London, amazed me. There is no law requiring it, no government departments 'encouraging' it loudly, yet shop after shop are displaying signs saying words to the effects of "At 1:46 pm to day, we will be observing two minutes silence in remembrance of the atrocities on September 11^th of last year in the United States." Others are expressing memorial sentiments, still others just displaying small American flags. No doubt these signs will all be gone by this evening, but they are there now.

Some signs are hand written by shop managers, others were clearly printed by a head office... but the signs are there and they come not from above, passed down from the salons of the chattering classes, but from below, from the true heart of England.

There is indeed an Anglosphere and it is very, very real.

[Gumlegs]

Sorry if all the pictures cause this to load slowly, but I thought it was important to see how our friends ... our real friends in the UK think about us.

[lucyblue]

BUMP

[Gumlegs]

Ping.

[abner]

Thanks for the post.

[twyn1]

Thank you for posting this

[piasa]

We know where the real people stand; I saw how many turned out in London on C-SPAN today. The streets outside the cathedral were full. Thanks, it means a lot to see where the real people stand.

[rintense]

God bless you, Gumlegs, for sharing this with us. And Godspeed to our Brit Brothers across the sea...

[wardaddy]

Very Nice.

[Billthedrill]

It is important. We get a skewed picture hereabouts from all the Guardian crapola. Thanks for taking the trouble to snap the pix and share.

[Sabertooth]

Great post, and much appreciated today, of all days.

[tomkat]

visibility bump

thanks for the post ...

[ilgipper]

bump

[Happygal]

P-ping :-)

[Gumlegs]

Thanks for the compliment, but all I did was post what was already on the web at Samizdata. The author -- bless him and all those who put up the signs -- should get the kudos.

[Chemist_Geek]

Let us go forward together!

[Consort]

Flag of England

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for this post!

We had several friends in the UK last year when 9/11 happened. They were treated with respect, gentleness and an outpouring of love by the Brits.

A friend's daughter just finished a year of college in London. The daughter could not believe how outraged most of the UK students were about what happened to us.

[JulieRNR21]

Thank you dear cousins across the pond! It is good to know that you are with us 'Over There!'

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Bump for our friends.

[AdA$tra]

Thank You U.K. Bump

Hi HG!