Cumbria

I've just heard about the dreadful shootings in Cumbria.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/02/cumbria-shootings-slaughter-countryside-derrick-bird

I hate this. I hate that one selfish, angry person can do this to people because HE'S got problems. Shoot yourself if you want to -- I don't believe suicide is a crime -- but don't take others with you. That's not your right.

I remember Dunblane. Eleanor was a tiny baby. I remember seeing a mother rushing up to the school crying out for her five-year-old daughter who lay inside, dead, along with her teacher and classmates. I've rarely felt such anger and disbelief and sorrow as I held my own daughter close.

I hate that in the years since I've felt that emotion again, more times than I want to think about: other school shootings, 9/11, countless bombings...


Some people are so vile I want to kick them out of the human race. They don't belong.

Comments off because this isn't something I feel able to talk about. My grandfather's ashes were scattered on those hills because he loved them so much; I've walked them myself often in the past and camped there by streams coming down from the mountains. They're peaceful, idyllic.