23/03/2017 This Week

Two people shot outside the Westminster Parliament.

Westminster is in a state of emergency tonight after

what the Metropolitan Police described as a terror incident.

It is the worst attack in London since

Tonight on This Week, violence, terror and death descend on the

Four people are killed and scores injured by an

Counter extreme expert Jonathan Russell tells us why

the threat here is more dangerous and unpredictable than ever.

The security services can't do this alone.

This attack shows Sweeney Day full spectrum counter extreme is

strategy involving all sectors of society.

Parliament was suspended, Westminster locked down.

The Daily Mail's Parliamentary sketch writer,

Quentin Letts, suddenly became a front line reporter, as he watched

At the gates of our Parliament I saw a stabbing, shots

being fired, but our democracy being bravely defended.

And today, as millions of Londoners and MPs

returned to work and went about their daily business,

Simon Callow puts resilience in tonight's

Whatever the Westminster attacker thought he was doing

yesterday, the effect will be, has been, the exact opposite.

Sudden, violent death is now a part of life

across the world, and here is no exception.

Keith Palmer had been a copper for 15 years.

A husband, dad, brother, uncle, public servant.

Before joining the police he'd been in the Army.

Yesterday he was murdered defending our democracy.

Defending the very heart of our democracy from

Reminding us of something that we badly needed reminding -

that the most important people in this country are not the rich,

But those who run to confront the enemies of our civilisation

while the rest of us are running away.

Brutally stabbed to death by a jumped-up jihadi not fit

to breathe the same air as the man he killed.

Now, I know there are still some Jihadi Johnnies out there who think

they will eventually triumph because their love of death

Do you have any idea who you're dealing with?!

This is the country that stood up alone to the might of the Luftwaffe,

airforce of the greatest evil mankind has ever known.

If you think we're now going to be cowed by some pathetic Poundland

terrorist in an estate car with a knife then you're

Sometimes the hurt is more than we can bear.

Because for every brainwashed, brain-dead Islamist you send to do

us harm we have thousands upon thousands of Keith Palmers.

You'll find them in every walk of life, in every part of the land.

They come in all shapes, all sizes, all colours, all faiths.

And against them, you will never prevail.

I'm joined on the sofa tonight, yet again, by a two-fingered

Your thoughts. It coincided with the death of Martin McGuinness which was

-- was a reminder that London has sustained many tens of terrorist

deaths. They were killed in the Hilton hotel, at Harrods, in the

parks, the Palace of Westminster, there were bombs at Canary Wharf, a

huge bomb in the city. And Londoners became in your debt to terror. --

they've became used to terror. And I felt yesterday that Londoners

quickly recovered that resilience they had had before. I was struck

how yesterday evening, on the whole, despite great sorrow and shock, on

the whole London was back to its normal self. I walked out of

Westminster Station at 2:45pm and came up except seven to come out in

Whitehall and saw people looking behind me. I suddenly heard coppers

running everywhere, saw the doors of one Parliament St, where my office

is, shut. So the lockdown happened very quickly. So I couldn't go in

and I stood and observed. The police cordon wasn't there and there were

rumours flying about. Two people involved, three points of attack.

And all of the people walking around did not know what was going to

happen next. My staff inside, who stayed locked in for five hours,

were worried that someone was marauding through the houses of

Parliament. So it was a really difficult situation. I saw the

police go in, I saw the helicopter land. And gradually, picking up

rumours, Evan Davis turned up. We were picking up rumours and

gradually the police cordon went further back-up Whitehall. I was

probably better being locked out than I was being locked in. I was

free to go where I wanted. I hope I do not have a political moment like

that in a hurry because it was very scary.

The man behind yesterday's terrorist attack was

He was born in Kent and lived in the West Midlands.

He was known to the police and convicted of a number

There was a time when he was also on MI5's radar

He was never wanted or arrested for terrorism-related offences.

But today Islamic State claimed Mahmood as one of its "soldiers"

who had responded to its call to attack Coalition countries,

like Britain, which are helping local forces destroy Islamic State

As terror attacks go it was pretty unprofessional, one petty criminal,

A far cry from the well-armed, well-trained, well-orchestrated

terrorist attacks on the Bataclan and Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

As its dreams of a Caliphate crash in the sands of the Levant,

perhaps IS is becoming more of a threat to the West.

But does it still have the capability to cause substantial

damage or is it increasingly dependent on deranged loners?

Here's counter terrorism expert Jonathan Russell

Yesterday, central London was brought to a terrifying halt.

Ironically, it was probably inspired by an organisation on the cusp

Isis has been on the retreat in Iraq and Syria, suffering territorial

losses, cash shortages and a dwindling supply

As its operational space reduces, Isis fighters have been driven

underground and back to their countries of origin.

As Isis face worsening fortunes in the Middle East,

we are likely to see more attacks elsewhere, particularly

Isis has made no secret of its desire to attack Britain.

Yes, we are an island with strict gun laws,

which makes a centrally organised, sophisticated attack tricky.

But what we have seen over the last six months

is the emergence of low tech, high impact terrorism.

With attacks that can be planned and executed within hours,

The UK security services have done a good job preventing centrally

organised terrorism, but stopping rudimentary attacks

is all that more difficult, because trucks, cars and knives

We now know the attacker yesterday was Khalid Masood, British-born,

had a history of criminality, and though investigated

for his links to violent extremism, was not part

The real concern is people like this, beneath the radar,

many of them self-starter terrorists, radicalised

in their bedrooms while watching videos online.

The UK needs to do more to prevent such radicalisation,

by strengthening our counter extremism strategy, building

grass-roots resilience and training skilled intervention providers

If we don't, this attack marks just the beginning.

And Jonathan Russell from the Quilliam Foundation is with us now.

So jihadists like Masood are tougher for the intelligence services to

crack. No networks, no chatter, no guns. But they are also more limited

in the carnage they can cause. Is that the way that things are going?

Absolutely. If you ask the security services they will be more worried

about marauding Terrorism Act firearms attacks, as happened in

Paris. There will be a really high victim count and it would be a

dreadful situation. However, most of these things require cells and

coordination, some level of sophisticated planning. Much harder

to detect, according to security services, are these lone actor,

unsophisticated, rudimentary weapon attacks like yesterday from Masood.

We are talking about people beneath the radar, radicalised in their

bedrooms. Can counterterrorist organisations do much to stop that?

If all you need is a car and a carving knife, how do you stop that?

I don't think security services can do that alone, which is why we talk

about trying to prevent people wanting to do that in the first

place, which is where counter extremists coming, but also the rest

of society. Teachers, youth workers, prison officers, police officers,

who have day-to-day contact with vulnerable individuals can start

intervene, spotting signs of radicalisation and turning people

down different paths. You need the help of communities. Communities

have a really important role, because they have relationships with

the vulnerable, and for the most part do not want to see this type of

violence. It is a new challenge for security services because when it is

better organised there is chatter online and in social media. If they

need guns, we are very good at tracking guns and getting them down.

We have very sophisticated surveillance. But if it is just some

guy in his bedroom being radicalised online, that's a different

challenge. Jonathan is right about this strand of Event, which has been

quite controversial since it was introduced as part of the strategy

on counterterrorism. -- Prevent. It has improved over time but it would

be perverse not to have a strategy to prevent, because that really is

about intelligence picked up from teachers, from community workers,

from people who walk out to tell their local neighbourhood policing

team, a PCS oh, it is amazing how much of that intelligence came

through to counter intelligence. There are very few lone wolves, and

now eight people have been arrested around this guy. It is very rare

that there is a lone wolf. There is usually someone else involved. If

more people are involved, more people pick up what is going on.

Jonathan is right, that has to be the major area of concern. And for

the whole of the population. I think there is one element of this, Isis

have lost 60% of their territory in Iraq, 25% in Syria. As that warped

appeal to younger people, their success, suddenly flying that black

flag everywhere, that might help in the sense of not radicalising

younger people, because they are suddenly seen to be defeated and

losers. It is a new challenge for the intelligence services. The thing

we have been most worried about is the returning jihadi professional,

the battle hardened one, the trained one in guns and techniques, the kind

of people who were at Charlie Hebdo, they seemed very professional. It

looks like so far our intelligence services have done a good job of

keeping on top of that. About 13 potential attacks worth watered by

them, something you never quite here, but really important. -- they

were watered. Yes, it might seem trite in light of this tragedy, but

in a way this is the right problem to have. If the terrorist is being

driven towards lone wolves who are less sophisticated and can inflict

less damage, then that is the right problem to have. One must did use,

by the fact that we have not had an incident of scale since 1995, while

other countries in Europe have had many incidents of great scale, we

must infer that our security services have been pretty much on

top of this, and we should rejoice in that. 2005. Yes, but we must

rejoice that they have done, we can infer that they have done an

extraordinary good job. In coming days I am sure there will be

criticisms, maybe even in this programme, at least some questions

raised about security. But let that not obscure the fact that the

intelligence services must have done a remarkable job.

As Islamic state loses men, treasure, land, does that undermine

its capacity to be able to attack the West? If it's on the back foot

out there, does not undermine its ability to do bad things here? The

first angle that could increase things is a returnee load of

fighters. That would affect the continent more than the UK because

of the free-flow of people. The second thing that could reduce

things is this hypocrisy element, the sense that they are failing and

that they are losers. I think however Isis are very good at

spinning out of these sorts of things with their propaganda,

they've dropped all reference, for example, to the centrality of the

caliphate and they are talking more about a digital caliphate these

days. I would hope that we can all work together to say that this is

proof that the Jihadist model and the Jihadist experiment is a failure

and that might be subsequently less appealing to our youngsters who're

in the process of being radicalised or exploited.

But I would say that as it's seen as a failure, if we don't go after that

ideaology and broader narrative, people might see attacks in the UK

as a viable alternative to travelling for terrorism. Going out

to Syria and Iraq and so on. It may be that Islamic state, for the

reasons you have given, becomes less attractive to radicalising our

citizens here and they go and fight there. But a lot have already done

that and a lot have come back, Thirlwall trained, we assume still

radicalised. The Intelligence Services will know who these people

are, but of course, as the IRA said in the Brighton bomb, we have to be

right every day, they only have to be right one day? Yes, but I think

we are right and Michael's right. Harriet Harman made this point in

Parliament, he failed in his attempt. I think that Jonathan is

right, it's more of a problem for Europe than it is for us in the

sense that we have a much firmer control of our border and who is

returning and we can't follow everyone 24 hours a day, but

certainly these people returning will be a major source of

observation and scrutiny. But isn't the harsh reality, Jonathan, we have

had the Muslim Brotherhood in years gone by, Al-Qaeda, Islamic state,

and even if this is the beginning of the end for Islamic state,

particularly in the Middle East, there is always the high possibility

that something else will take its place? Of course, yes. This remains

a generational struggle. I think Isis will be seen as a blip within a

Jihadist trend and I think therefore we need to get to grips with the

arguments of the Muslim Brotherhood that continue to fly beneath the

radar. I'm not saying we should ban an organisation like the Muslim

Brotherhood, but we should understand that they have, you know,

they create an atmosphere condusive to this sort of rubbish. Therefore

we need to find a different sort of tiered response to these sorts of

groups. All right. Don't go away, we'll come back to you.

Now it's late, cup of tea and carry on late, for London is gutsy,

From the reopening of Westminster Bridge to displays

at tube stations with messages of hope to flowers at

the National Police memorial, this great city still stands strong.

In that spirit, it's only fitting that waiting in the wings

is actor Simon Callow, here to put resilience

As ever, join the Snapchatter, throw on your Fleecebook

Londoners going about their daily business, tourists from all over

the world, an American couple celebrating their 25th

wedding anniversary, French children on a school trip

Those are just some of the victims who bore the brunt of yesterday's

attack, innocent civilians minding their own business

on the glory that is Westminster Bridge.

Tonight we learned that that one of them, a 75-year-old man,

has died, taking the death toll to four, plus the attacker,

His path of destruction led him through their lives

and onto the Parliamentary estate where he was shot dead

MPs and Lords were told to stay in their respective chambers whilst

parliamentary staff, journalists and visitors rushed

The Daily Mail's sketch-writer, Quentin Letts, was one of the first

to give an eyewitness account from his desk

I am now going to suspend the sitting of the House.

This House is now suspended but please wait here.

There has been a serious incident within the estate.

It seems that a police officer has been stabbed.

It wasn't that way yesterday before an atrocity in which three people

were killed by a terrorist attacker who was himself then shot dead.

From my office window, I watched the ghastly events unfold.

Our Parliament, our values under attack.

At 3 o'clock yesterday, politics across the kingdom

Politics just fades into the background on a day like today.

Clearly, so many people in the Scottish Parliament have

friends, colleagues in Westminster, many people in Scotland have friends

working in London and therefore, as a mark of respect,

not because of any increased threat to the Scottish Parliament,

but as a mark of respect and solidarity, the decision

to suspend business was absolutely the right one.

I have just chaired a meeting of the Government's emergency

committee COBRA following the sick and depraved terrorist

attack on the streets of our capital this afternoon.

The full details of exactly what happened are still emerging.

But having been updated by police and security officials,

I can confirm that this appalling incident began when a single

attacker drove his vehicle into pedestrians walking

across Westminster Bridge, killing two people and injuring many more,

But a heavy police presence and sombre MPs made it

clear we were some way from business as usual.

We shall now observe a minutes' silence.

A full House of Commons amazingly quiet heard Theresa May,

this implacable Prime Minister, urge us to go about our business

as usual and Jeremy Corbyn firmly spoke of solidarity and humanity.

In scenes repeated in towns and cities across the country,

millions of people are going about their days and getting

The streets are as busy as ever, the offices full, the coffee

As I speak, millions will be boarding trains and aeroplanes

to travel to London and to see for themselves the

It is in these actions, millions of acts of normality,

that we find the best response to terrorism.

Look after each other, help one another and think of one another.

It is by demonstrating our values, solidarity, community, humanity

and love, that we will defeat the poison and division of hatred.

People who commit acts of terrorism in the name of Islam do not speak

for the Muslims in this country, do not speak for the Muslims

in this City and certainly do not speak for me.

We must not allow, in the coming days and weeks, anyone to try

and divide our country on the basis of faith or nationality

With your indulgence, Sir, I would like to turn for just

a moment to PC Keith Palmer who I first met 25 years ago

as Gunner Keith Palmer at Headquarters Battery 100

He was a strong, professional public servant and it was a delight

to meet him here again only a few months after being elected.

And less than three hours before the attack, frontbenchers

in the House of Commons paid tribute to a former Sinn Fein leader to many

MPs heard those tributes in cold silence.

And I would like to express my condolences to the family

and colleagues of the former Deputy First Minister

of Northern Ireland, Martin McGuinness.

Of course, we do not condone or justify the path he took

in the earlier part of his life and we should never forget that,

However, as my Noble Friend Lord Trimble set out yesterday,

he played an indispensable role in bringing the Republican movement

away from violence to peaceful and democratic means and to building

Martin played an immeasurable role in bringing about peace

in Northern Ireland and it's that peace that we all want to see endure

for all-time for all people in Northern Ireland.

Before all this happened, the week had also brought

Labour Party tensions, revival of Scottish

independence talk and a setting of a date for Article 50.

Terrorism is an intrusion, an outrage, but it's

Normal service will be resumed whatever our enemies think.

Jonathan Russell is still with us. Alan, former Home Secretary, while

the police on the main gate into Parliament -- why are the police on

the main gate into Parliament not armed? They're the second line of

defence. Keith Palmer, you walk past him and say morning to him, he was

the unarmed person. Before 9/11, in about 97, there was no security at

all, you could walk through with your constituents. I I remember the

days you could walk up 10 Downing Street. Yes, so it's been a gradual

process. The police on the gates, in many ways, they're a tourist

attraction, they have they photographs taken with tourists over

and over again. They are a part of coming to Parliament. I think there

was a reluctance to put armed police in that position, but know of course

it might change. I think it probably will change. But these are the gates

that open and close quite a lot, cars are going in and out,

particularly at times of votes, ministers rush back, then rush back

to their departments. I mean there was a time in the immediate

aftermath of what happened yesterday when the gate remained open, indeed

one report in the Times suggested that a courier came through to

deliver a package? I mean, we know what it could have been? ! Yes, that

is exactly right. I mean, one doesn't want to get into loose talk

here, but let me say this, I would like to be reassured that there's

absolutely joined up strategies for defending Parliament and I mean the

interior, the outside, threats from the air, threats from the water,

threats from the land. I think almost certainly the way the gate is

guarded will change. The news this evening, if it's true that the

terrorist was actually shot by Michael Fallon's protection officer,

raises another set of questions about how quickly the team that were

meant to be there got there, so there are lots of questions that

need to be raised. It really does need to be joined up. I'm going back

a very long time but I will say when I was there, I was worried that it

wasn't completely joined up then, in particular the internal and external

threats were not considered together. That courier van couldn't

have got through, there was a vote on at time, so the bells were

ringing, there was a division and they opened the gates. Otherwise

there would be another security problem. I suspect this was

fortuitous on the part of the terrorist. Yes, it wasn't planned.

But coincided with the vote it led to the gates being opened and of

course to the Prime Minister being mobile.

We were reporting earlier that the attacker was killed by the Defence

Secretary's protection officer who happened to be waiting while Michael

Fallon went to vote. He was just there. It would suggest, you dread

to think what would have happened if we hadn't been there. It does

suggest security at a Palace of Westminster isn't as good as we

thought it was. It's a tricky one. Not only should we salute the

security services for how many attacks they prevent on a monthly

basis, we understand, but also what's tricky is getting the balance

between enough police that people feel safe and that they can do an

acute job like this, to keep us safe, but not so much that people

feel that there is a constant threat to our way of life. We are not even

at the highest terror threat level. We are not at imminent yet. Because

we do not know of any specific threat. Let's be honest, if this

attacker had been professionally trained and armed with automatic

weapons, this could have been a massacre. It could have been. The

story about Michael Fallon, that is the first I have heard about that.

But if he wasn't there, there are always three, four, sometimes six

armed police around that members entrance of New Palace Yard. So, you

know, there would have been guns there. If he had come in firing

guns, there would have been people there to deal with it. He was three

open doors away from the Prime Minister. That the layout. He was

only 20 yards inside the gate. He did not get further than that place

where you go down to the underground car park. He just got as far as

there, about 20 yards in. It just happens to be, if he had got a bit

further he could have got up to the Prime Minister's office. The war on

terror has become intelligence led. There will now be more demands for

more resources for the intelligence services, and I suspect they will be

irresistible demands. Yet, as we were saying yesterday, for the likes

of yesterday's attacker, that is the most difficult job for intelligence

services. It is almost like no matter what resource they have they

may not be able to pick up people like him. Let me just pay the

tribute again. Working amongst the communities where they have to work,

working with different languages, working with some communities that

are quite closed but which have to be opened up, transferring the

effort from Irish terrorism to Islamist terrorism, all of this has

been a prodigious achievement by the security forces. Prodigious

achievement. And yes, I think probably more resources will be

needed, and it looks as though those resources could be put to good use.

What did you make of the glowing tributes to Martin McGuinness this

week? I think we are all conflicted about this. My hero is a Derrey

politician, John Hume, who suffered just the same discrimination but

decided to take a different route. I don't see how you can justify, under

any circumstances, killing innocent civilians as part of your political

objectives. Having said that, it is absolutely clear that without Martin

McGuinness, that peace process would never have worked. And his position

on the Bogside in Derry, where he continued to live... You remember

shortly after the real IRA, the terrible outrage in Omagh, he was in

danger, he risked his life in the end on the peace process. So the two

parts of the Martin McGuinness are difficult to reconcile but in the

end, from everyone who was involved in that peace process, it couldn't

have happened without him. Could I just say, John Major started the

peace process but it would have been very difficult for a Conservative

Prime Minister or Cabinet to take the peace process very far, because

so many of the victims had been our friends. It required a change of

government. As it happened, Labour had not been in power for many

years, and so Labour people had not been the victims. It was therefore

more possible for Labour to continue the process. While we are talking

about courage, it actually did take courage for Tony Blair and then, my

goodness, for the Queen to shake hands with Martin McGuinness and

with former terrorists. And I have no complaint about that whatsoever.

Despite marvellous people who were killed by the IRA, marvellous

people, which makes it impossible for me ever to forget it, I do

understand how necessary the peace process was. Jonathan, thank you for

being with us. Now, we're a resilient

bunch here on This Week. Suffering regular eye-damage

at the hands of Michael's wardrobe and spontaneous,

severe narcolepsy at No wonder Molly The Dog,

who is French and so not quite as resilient as the rest of us,

is on permanent sabbatical Despite the bungling bozos that pass

for the production team on this show, there is one consolation:

we get to work in a city that In case anyone needed reminding

of London's character, we're putting resilience

in our Spotlight. London stood together tonight

in defiance of the terror that Londoners will never

be cowed by terrorism. This morning, millions

returned to work and went Why should we stop living our lives

the way we do for these nutters? At a moment like this I think it's

important that we come together to remember who we are,

that we don't let events like this change us and that

together we defeat them. In the Commons, it was

business as usual. Questions to the Secretary of State

for International Trade. Ensure that if we do have a trade

agreement with New Zealand, we won't be flooded

with New Zealand lamb. It wasn't just Londoners

who kept their upper lip stiff. I'm admiring really the resilience

of the citizens of London Australia's heartfelt

sympathy and resolute solidarity is with the people

of the United Kingdom, with whom we stand today,

as we always have, Londoner Simon Callow lived

through the troubles in Belfast. We think of ourselves as a resilient

city, a resilient nation. Are we? I think we are. Curiously, adverse tea

of this kind seems to bring out that aspect of our character. Without

adversity we can sometimes become indulgent, complacent, whatever. But

we seem to thrive on it in some way, as if we were waiting for just such

a moment. You think it brings out the best in us? It might do. My

parents' generation grew up in London in the Blitz and we know how

extraordinary, how liberating it was for them in a sense. They knew what

needed to be fought against, and they fought against it. What

happened in the Blitz puts yesterday into context. Terrible as it was, it

was not the Blitz. Are we more resilient than other nations? Is it

an island race, is it an island nation phenomenon, resilience? It is

hard to say, because the French have recently enjoyed outrages and they

have been remarkable. I was in Paris just immediately before Bataclan and

immediately afterwards. I suppose human beings are resilient. But I

think it is part of our national self image and we live up to it. Are

we resilient people, Michael? Yes, I think we are but we must not take on

an air of any superiority. New York City sustained 3000 deaths in a day

and the resilience of New York has been superb. So let's not try and

get one up on each other. Let's say that New York has inspired Paris,

that Paris has inspired us, that we inspired Brussels. That is the way

it has to be. I found in France that French resilience was beginning to

wane simply because of the scale and number of attacks. Charlie Hebdo,

Bataclan, Nice above all really tested French resilience to the

absolute limit, it was so horrendous what happened that night. There have

been a string of these. There was Berlin just before. Berlin was

extraordinary. Again, I was there immediately after that outrage. And

again, people had immediately recovered and insisted on business

as usual. It's a human instinct. The one thing that is what is true is

that the older generation is always more resilient than the younger

generation. At least, that is what they always think. That generation

that went through the war, two wars. And a depression. There was no

counselling service for people. When you listen to their experiences,

they just had to get on with it. In a sense, there is more concerned now

and more sympathy. In those days, there was very little of it, you

just got on with it in the most appalling circumstances. Resilience

helps if you have the right leadership as well. Churchill

provided the country with the right leadership at a time when we had to

be most resilient. Yes, but I have no reason to criticise any of the

leadership in the last 24 hours, whether from government or

opposition. Theresa May was pitch perfect this morning in Parliament.

Pitch perfect. But often leaders who are unimpressive in the ordinary

conduct of affairs suddenly become remarkable in these situations. That

was true of President Hollande, whose ratings were very low. For

Charlie Hebdo, he rose to the occasion. But sank again afterwards!

Ken Livingstone, for example, spoke remarkably eloquently and generously

towards the people who had suffered, and in favour of a diversity and

freedom in England, which the rest of his activities as a politician

haven't always endorsed. The one thing terrorists do when they do

this is that they remind us of the diversity, because they kill and

maim not just a small number of Brits, but people from all over the

world who have suffered. They suffered in 7/7 and they suffered

yesterday. 11 nationalities. What are you up to these days? Directing

a play by Christopher Hampton called the philanthropist, a wonderful

play, which has as its backdrop acts of political violence not at all

unlike the ones that have just occurred. What is interesting is

that the characters in the play each used completely ignore them, as

people very often do. Life, as we keep saying, goes on. Sometimes it

is the best way. I have a feeling we will need all the resilience we can

muster in months to come. That's your lot for tonight

folks but not for us. We're off to LouLou's

to party the night away. I know that might not seem

appropriate after yesterday's events but the Prime Minister has told us

it must be business as usual, and for us normal service

is our Thursday night knees up So we think of it as duty

rather than enjoyment. Don't let London's

stiff upper lip bite. London pride, written by Noel Coward

during the Blitz. London Pride has been

handed down to us. London Pride is

a flower that's free. London Pride means our

own dear town to us. Woa, Liza, see the coster

barrows, vegetable marrows Covent Garden Market,

where the costers cry. Cockney feet mark

the beat of history. Nothing ever can quite replace

the grace of London Town. There's a little city flower

every spring unfailing, growing in the crevices

by some London railing. Though it has a Latin name,

in town and countryside, London Pride has been

handed down to us. London Pride is

a flower that's free. London Pride means our

own dear town to us.