A Defiant Nation
It's encouraging to see journalists giving credit where it's due, as in this example from The Guardian where the newspaper's sketch writer John Crace concludes that the Prime Minister captured the nation's defiant mood in the wake of the appalling terrorist attack on Manchester.
"Yes, we all had every right to be shocked. Like the rest of us, her first reaction to the news had been “Not again”. But humanity would prevail. The bastards would never win. Never. There were just too many of us on the right side of history. At times, words come cheap to politicians. These ones looked like they cost the prime minister dear. And were all the better for it."
Read the full article via the link to The Guardian below.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/23/its-no-easy-job-to-capture-the-nations-mood-but-the-pm-did-it-well
It’s no easy job to capture the nation’s mood, but the PM did it well
By John Crace - The Guardian
When Theresa May spoke after the Manchester bombing, her sadness was touched with an edge of real anger, a feeling shared by everyone present
There were many who wouldn’t have got much sleep on Monday night and Theresa May was one of them. The prime minister looked haunted, slightly diminished even, as she walked out of Downing Street to address the media. The previous evening she had been a mere party leader campaigning hard to keep her job; now she was having to act as the voice of the country after the worst terrorist attack on the UK since 2005.
It’s no easy job to capture the nation’s mood in just a few words, but the prime minister did it well. She began steadily, describing in some detail what was known about the suicide bombing at the Ariana Grande concert and expressing her sympathy for the victims and their family and friends.
Her voice cracked a little as she said: “It is now beyond doubt that the people of Manchester and of this country have fallen victim to a callous terrorist attack, an attack that targeted some of the youngest people in our society with cold calculation.” This was what made this act of terrorism particularly shocking. It hadn’t been indiscriminate: there was no small, cold comfort to be found in its random senselessness. Instead, the killer had deliberately gone after the softest of soft targets: young girls on what should have been one of their best nights of the year.
When Theresa May spoke after the Manchester bombing, her sadness was touched with an edge of real anger, a feeling shared by everyone present
There were many who wouldn’t have got much sleep on Monday night and Theresa May was one of them. The prime minister looked haunted, slightly diminished even, as she walked out of Downing Street to address the media. The previous evening she had been a mere party leader campaigning hard to keep her job; now she was having to act as the voice of the country after the worst terrorist attack on the UK since 2005.
It’s no easy job to capture the nation’s mood in just a few words, but the prime minister did it well. She began steadily, describing in some detail what was known about the suicide bombing at the Ariana Grande concert and expressing her sympathy for the victims and their family and friends.
Her voice cracked a little as she said: “It is now beyond doubt that the people of Manchester and of this country have fallen victim to a callous terrorist attack, an attack that targeted some of the youngest people in our society with cold calculation.” This was what made this act of terrorism particularly shocking. It hadn’t been indiscriminate: there was no small, cold comfort to be found in its random senselessness. Instead, the killer had deliberately gone after the softest of soft targets: young girls on what should have been one of their best nights of the year.
