Posted on 05/23/2013 2:11:53 PM PDT by rickmichaels
LONDON - A middle-aged cub scout mistress who gave two bloodied knifemen a stern talking to as a British soldier lay dead on the street was hailed as a hero for embodying the “spirit of London”.
And as some in the capital complained about immigrants after a killing blamed on British Muslim converts with Nigerian roots, it turned out the woman held up as the new face of civic pride in Europe’s multi-ethnic metropolis was herself born in France.
Named by the prime minister from the steps of No. 10 Downing Street, Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, 48, said her bus was halted by the incident on Wednesday. She got off to offer first aid to the man lying in the street and found herself confronted by his killer, still wielding a bloody knife and a meat cleaver.
“I was not scared because he was not drunk, he was not on drugs. He was normal. I could speak to him and he wanted to speak and that’s what we did,” the former teacher from southwest England told the Guardian.
Film of Londoners calmly standing by, going about their business, tending to the victim or - in the case of Loyau-Kennett - remonstrating with the killers, captured imaginations of a city steeped in a stoical self-image of the World War Two “spirit of the Blitz” and numerous guerrilla attacks since.
“That’s the spirit of London,” declared the mayor, Boris Johnson.
In fact, like many among the city’s eight million people, Loyau-Kennett was only passing through, visiting her children as she returned from a holiday in France to her home in rural Cornwall, where she helps run a Cub Scout pack for boys aged 8 to 10.
Looking relaxed and playing down her heroics in an interview on national breakfast television, she told ITV her main thought had been to keep the men talking until police could get to the scene, near Woolwich army barracks in southeast London:
“I wanted him to concentrate on me and make sure he doesn’t have a funny idea,” she said in French-accented English. Her son, who helped make her a star by tweeting her name after pictures appeared in the media of her talking to the suspect, told Reuters she moved to Britain as a young woman.
“I had taken a 53 bus to get to Parliament Square, where I was going to meet my children and walk to Victoria coach station before getting the coach to Helston in Cornwall,” she told the Guardian. “I was sitting on the lower deck and the bus stopped. I could clearly see a body in the road and a crashed car.
”I trained as a first aider ... so I asked someone to watch my bag and then got off to see if I could help.“
What she found was an apparently lifeless man and two others with weapons: ”I thought, okay,“ she said.
”I could see a butcher’s knife and an axe - that’s what he had - and blood. I thought, what the heck? I thought obviously he was a bit excited and the thing was just to talk to him.“
Prime Minister David Cameron picked up on her response when one of the men told her their aim was to ”start a war“ in London: ”She replied ’You’re going to lose. It’s only you versus many’,“ Cameron said.
”She spoke for us all.“
The “Spirit of London” is a woman having to approach a bloody terrorist while the men hide behind lampposts and watch? Piers Morgan will be proud.
The posted story says she was born in France and immigrated to Britain.
Worth Watching. Tommy Robinson (EDL) speaks about Woolwich terrorist attack..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=a7cmijwvpD4#!
Hey, what the hell are we supposed to use man? Harsh language?
Apparently that is how things work nowadays in Britain.
And I'll say it again!
NIH!
Think of her as a hostage negotiator: she kept them talking for twenty minutes until an armed response arrived.
I would have liked to see a mob response but unless I was sure of my mob, I’d hope to have the guts to keep them talking as she did.
And she was VERY lucky they seem to have regarded women as off-limits.
Why didn’t a group gang up on the Islamic wackjob and beat the hell out of him?
“That’s the spirit of London,” declared the mayor, Boris Johnson. Ironic to say the least.
Scarier is the jihadist .
You can sleep off drunk. You can’t sleep off The Prophet.
“Throw down your arms or I will taunt you a 2nd time!”
Harsh language, that will do it. Worked in the movie Aliens.
Thank you! What did she do, yell at the filthy animal? please.
Makes me sick.
I think you’ve summed it up. Grinning and bearing it was not the spirit of London under Churchill.
But since a grade school teacher, no matter how idiotic her obvious belief in the “coexist” bumper sticker, had more nerve than any of the men or even the gate officers there sure says a lot about the real spirit of London.
They could have easily killed her too. She’s lucky to be alive.
A stern talking to? Next time shell put e Islamic butchers in the comfy chair...
...and meanwhile David Cameron ought to hang his head in shame for his stupid remarks defending the Religion of Peace, Islam.
What color is the sky in his bizarro world?
Sorry, but the ‘Spirit of London’ was the dead troop lying on the sidewak.
Yeesh. I don't mean to criticize this woman in saying this, but if its considered heroic in Britain to give a killer a "stern talking to", then God help them. You kill killers, you arrest and lock up killers. You don't just give them a "stern talking to."
Because a majority of men in our world have been sisified. I’m noticing this more and more - men running and hiding or standing around watching and doint nothing.
It’s a disgrace!
What is it going to take to make men REALLY mad and finally “stand up”?
‘Grinning and bearing it was not the spirit of London under Churchill.’
Yes it was. ‘Keep calm and carry on’.
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