Gwenyth Paltrow - Anti-American Princess

Don't think it's 'stiff upper lip'. To us the US way of dealing with things (particularly 9/11) WAS overly emotional and feels mantipulated / manipulative.

Whether this is an inherent US trait or reflects the shock of terrorism (we've had a lot of practice at dealing with bombs!!) I don't know but it does look very wierd to us - particularly children reading out the names of the dead 4 years after the event.

I'm sure many yanks living here will have seen the memorials etc with a bit more perspective and probably thought the same - it's just that she gets the chance to give her view and it gets reported.

I suppose if Britain wanted to go to war, they would've had their media play up the emotional pain of 7/7 like the US did with 9/11... building up the hate so that their country could justify going to war. Being a "patriot" and all that.

People are controlled by the media too easily. I couldn't believe that hours after 9/11, CNN had a poll posted asking if the US should bomb the Afgans, and 80% said yes!

I don't feel offended by Gwenyth's comment, though if I were her I would've been more careful with my words.

I don't think they could - we're generally too cynical to accept that sort of manipulation.

To us it was just another bomb, not the first or last on the tube or elsewhere. Bear in mind it's only 60 years since we were all sleeping in shelters and carrying gas masks. That collective memory still runs within our national psyche unlike the US.

There have been attempts towards mawkish ceremonies on the anniversary of the tube bombings (a candle for each victim, rolling out Queenie etc etc ) but these were were seen for what they were.

It's not that we don't care, just that we react and deal with it in totally different ways compared to what we see on the news from the US