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Woman who berated London knifemen hailed for 'spirit of London'
Reuters ^ | May 23, 2013

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.“



TOPICS: United Kingdom; War on Terror
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To: rickmichaels

I’d have thought the spirit of London would go to her, if she’s smacked one of the yobs upside the head with a cricket bat (only since firearms are outlawed).


41 posted on 05/23/2013 4:07:54 PM PDT by ro_dreaming (G.K. Chesterton, “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting. It’s been found hard and lef)
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To: rickmichaels
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

Unbelievable. Beyond stupid. Now they're trying to spin this story as a positive for immigration.

42 posted on 05/23/2013 4:33:54 PM PDT by Leaning Right
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To: rickmichaels; All
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.

OMG this is just too much. In their pathetic attempts to continue their failed multicultural BS, these liberal media SMUCKS just compared French people to a bunch of 3rd world immigrant toilethead Muzzie terrorists who behead people in their city streets..... Gee Wiz Louise...

A European of France ancestry mother of two scout leader integrated into British society cause she comes from a Western culture and society who stops to help when she sees someone injured VS. an African of Nigerian ancestry convert Muslim who couldn't integrate into British society so instead he beheads native British people on the streets of London...Oh yeah the multicultural "likeness" between the two is just astonishing. (/sarc)

43 posted on 05/23/2013 5:02:45 PM PDT by apro
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To: apro

UK Scouts let in girls and let the kids have sex, from what I have read.


44 posted on 05/23/2013 5:03:34 PM PDT by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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To: GeronL
UK Scouts let in girls and let the kids have sex, from what I have read.

I don't know anything about that but the fact that the liberal leftist media is at it again trying to sell their failed multicultural lie by pointing out this woman was born is France but now lives in London, is a bunch of Bullshit. France people are Westerners, they have western beliefs and ideology, they don't go around beheading people in the streets. Maybe Reuters should listen to what French people who are also being victimized by the Jihadist have to say about the failed state of multiculturalism.

Assimilation is now impossible in France. It was possible when immigrants came from European countries, because they are like us ethnically and they are like us culturally..We can't live together because we don't have the same way of life we don't have the same values. We have nothing in common, nothing [with Muslims].

45 posted on 05/23/2013 5:27:26 PM PDT by apro
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