London, July 2005.

What a surreal week it has been. On Wednesday 6th July, London and indeed the entire country was celebrating the city's victory in the race to host the 2012 Olympic games. Ecstatic crowds were seen in Trafalgar Square cheering, hugging each other and crying with joy.

Then, less than twenty-four hours later, at 8.50 on 7th July, the city was rocked by the first of what was to be four terrorist bomb attacks on the London public transport system. The death toll currently stands at forty-nine but that is expected to rise with twenty-five people still missing. There could be no harsher contrast with the mood felt by London yesterday. The event that many believed was always a question of when, not if finally came.

What amazed me about that day was not the fact that it happened at all but the way in which the emergency services responded to it. The reaction was quick, controlled and effective. London's police, firemen, paramedics, doctors and nurses had prepared and planned for this day and their response to the real thing was exemplary.

This cowardly attack on innocent British civilians will not change, in any way, how we live our lives. We will not stop using public transport, we will not run scared. We will stand and fight with defiance.