Don't panic. posted by Richard Seymour

Don't panic, he says, like a reject from Dad's Army. I admit it - I've spent the last hour shitting myself, and contacting people I know - although the networks are naturally pretty busy.

It looks like there are at least six tube stations that have exploded. Four buses have blown up. Suffice to say, there will be no public transport available today - and I reckon you'll be lucky to get a taxi.

An 'expert' of some description has said that these attacks are designed to create maximum disruption with minimum loss of lives. Indeed, the explosions must have been rather weak: I am no more than a couple of hundred yards from Edgeware Road tube, which was the target of an explosion, and I didn't hear a thing. Not even a minute tremor. There is no billowing smoke, and people are still walking up and down Edgeware Road. Plenty of emergency sirens, though.

The news keeps repeating the same snippets of non-information, while the newscasters are probing for the most salacious details. It's actually quite gratuitous. Most of their commentators have fingered 'Al Qaeda' or some confederate organisation with guilt for these attacks. Well, let's face it, the choices are pretty limited - either it's the Real IRA, or it's some group in the fashion of 'Al Qaeda', or it's some far right group - recalling a certain nail-bomber not so long ago. There's no point in jumping to conclusions, however - when the FBI building was blown up in Oklahoma, it was immediately blamed on some dusky Others, and it turned out to be some red neck crackers, one of whom had experience fighting in Iraq.

It is also vitally urgent to bear in mind that Muslims are going to be singled out even more for opprobrium and racist violence in the coming days and weeks. There needs to be an immediate reaction against this, and I hope and expect that Respect will be particularly hard on this in the areas where it is active.

Doubtless, these attacks will be used to justify some war or other, and ID Cards could well be a shoo-in with the public now, despite recent trends for support to fall.

So, yeah, my nose-bleedingly obvious advice is, don't panic, stay safe - and turn off the news, please, because they will tell you practically nothing new, and will offend every shred of decency that you have with their prurient search for gory details.

Right, I'm going to grab something to eat and call some more people.