Outside The Gates - There is a Statue of Ghandi in Tavistock Sq.

There is a statue of Ghandi in Tavistock Sq. The mute espouser of non-violent struggle was assaulted here today. A crimson tear made from bits of brain and shards of skull lays a stain upon its cheek. Tributes to the victims of Hiroshima and prisoners of conscience have been dedicated here and that bear witness to the universal cry for peace.

A bomb has ripped through a London bus. Many killed, maimed, scared. All caught up in this have had their lives changed irrevocably. Not by their own volition or accident, instead by people who did not see them as human but as 'other'. Not as complete human beings made important by the love of wives, mothers and fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters, friends and lovers, but thought lesser than. Whose only worth was as the gore, the blood, the dismembered body parts splattering buildings or pedestrians. The macabre props in a 'propaganda of the deed'.

Tavistock Sq was chosen for its symbolism. Of that there can be no question.

But by whom? Who would benefit from defiling these noble ideals of non-violence and peace with the body parts of people?

By 19.45 the BBC had placed 'The Phantom', al Zarqawi in the frame, gleaning the information from a website. 'It has all the hallmarks of an al Qaeda attack', is in danger of becoming ubiquitous on the BBC since it was uttered by Straw - the Foreign Secretary.

For now I will withhold a pointed finger.

I drove a London bus, from Kings Cross to Crystal Palace and back for a while. Not the route that was bombed. I had worked out during that time, that 1% of London bus passengers were arseholes and 10% the sort that made the day worthwhile with a please, a thank you and a smile. The rest were decent, quiet people trying to get to work, or shops, hospitals, cinemas and clubs, relatives, school, and all with the least hassle. The 89% who help humanity rub along. Bus travel is cheap and it is London's working poor who make up the bulk of the passengers. The cleaners, the cooks, the hospital porters - and the bus drivers - and as in most European cities, they are usually people of colour. I hope my former colleague has survived.

It was not even 24hrs into London celebrating winning the 2012 Olympics and the previous weekend hundreds of thousands had marched and sang to make poverty history. It is now forgotten and the G8 has been let off the hook.

What has happened in London today is the daily horror that is Iraq. Not 37 dead (as I write) but forty, fifty, sixty and more every day. Killed by car bomb, IED, sniper and death squad. Thousands and thousands maimed and blinded. Raped. Tortured. The product of Blair's mendacity.

Finger pointing now at those I ultimately hold accountable - the buck stops with the war criminal Blair and his government, the malignant sarcoma on Britain's body politic that has, for the last 28 months committed this country to an illegal war.