death avoidance and taxes

Transport for London have more or less got the tube lines fully operational, but user numbers are down fairly substantially.

Tube passenger numbers have dropped by 30% at weekends and between 5% and 15% on weekdays, since the 7 July bombings, a senior manager has told BBC News.

Most regular commuters were continuing to travel - but a significant number of visitors and weekend shoppers were not using the system, the figures suggest.

I suppose some shoppers will have used other means to get to town, but many will have stayed away altogether. This is the terrorism tax in operation. That’s why it was important for the bombers to launch a second round of attacks. No matter how incompetently delivered, they spread the impression of a city under seige. See also today’s lockdown:

More than 6,000 officers, many armed, are patrolling stations and key sites, as the Piccadilly Line has reopened.

"We are using all the resources we can possibly muster to reassure Londoners and to prevent another attack," said Detective Chief Constable Andy Trotter…

Detective Chief Constable Trotter said: "It's extremely costly, there is no doubt about it. The budget is under enormous pressure and operationally there is pressure.

"But this is the biggest threat London has faced in peacetime and we have to throw all our resources into it right now. We will continue as long as it is necessary."

And of course, it all has to be paid for. Our kid was in London yesterday and came back with an interesting detail. He saw a stop and search procedure being carried out at gunpoint – ie, the cops pointed their guns at a random commuter and beckoned him over for a pat down. Not exactly part of a great day’s shopping experience. The irony about this kind of thing is that however necessary it may or may not be it tends to operate as a psychological force multiplier for the terrorists.