My mother survived the Birmingham pub bombings of the IRA in '74. She was in the theatre next door, where the wall collapsed, creating a stampede, which accounts for a few of the 21 people dead. As a fifteen year old, she very intelligently crawled under her seat, but still had to climb over two dead bodies in order to get out of the theatre.

She will tell you that economic damage does little to strike fear in the hearts of the public than the threat of life. Deep down (she says) we all want to survive, even if that means as cave men.

I'm just happy that I've never had to live through an experience like that.