Late last week, the authorities shut down London airports due to the terrorist plot of which you have no doubt heard. It has, as course, been widely reported worldwide and as much or more here in London as anywhere. The reaction, overall has been to me, somewhat peculiar. In a lot of ways the reaction has been exactly not what I expected.

It is difficult to cover something that didn’t happen. The story refuses to develop. The focus of the news has to be the back story. The news focus was then two pronged. Delays in the airport and those arrested. There were pictures of stranded tourists waiting out in the rain and blurry High School yearbook photos of alleged terrorists.

The coverage started on the front page on Friday and by Sunday had slipped off the front page. Granted that it was a four page section that was almost a pull-out. The focus shifted after the first day. It is hard for the news to cover something that didn’t happen. The story refuses to develop.

The papers were full of pictures and quotes from the airports. Stranded travellers sleeping on the terrazzo floor and close ups of clear plastic bags that are now the carry on bag de rigueur. The stories featured pull quotes from frustrated people who had lost sight of the fact that they were still around to give quotes.

The Daily Star newspaper today made clear its editorial stance. They ran an article on page 4-5, complete with quotes from marginally official people, that felt profiling would solve the congestion problem at the airport. They were clear that, to them, the blame rests with the Muslim community. Division and segregation is the solution. To put the Star in perspective, as if perspective is necessary, they run a picture of a topless girl on page 3.

In conjunction with this the coverage centres on the young men arrested. They are from the East end of London. I think that my train stops at a station near where many of the arrests took place. The underlying message seems to have an element of “they” to it. As in “How could they try to kill us”.

The air carriers have been ordered to cut flights in and out of British airports by 30% until further notice. There has been publicly aired backlash from the air carriers. Cheap airfare is almost viewed as a birthright. The biggest insult does not seems to be that terrorists tried to explode planes. The biggest insult is that travel is not convenient right now.

Letters to the Times have run to topics such as the image of England and the effect of the cutback of air flights. One writer was appalled that a flight containing a New York based symphony orchestra had to be cancelled. An Olympic level rowing team was unable to reach England in time. “How will the world view Britain?” the writer asked. We turn back orchestras and rowing teams. Is there no civility?

There is a saying that all politics is local. It would appear that these events seem to bear that out. Despite the enormous issues that an event, or non-event, like this raises, people seem to see the effect as far as the end of their day. The question raised should not be so much how does this affect me, but how do I affect the world?