Interesting Times August 9th 2011

It is a strange time to be living in London, with fires everywhere and no certainty whether or not ones area will be safe the following night. The only good thing about having riots all over London is that they are showing how valuable the police helicopters are. In Peckham there have been two helicopters circling almost constantly, watch and filming the scene. I am glad to have them there, and I expect many others (although not the looters) are too.
This helicopter is not one of the police ones, but is the De Beres helicopter, making its way to one of the few helipads left in London. What a contrast to Sâo Paulo with its 215 registered helipads. Perhaps, when all the fires are out and London returns to some kind of sanity, it might be worth thinking if we couldn't use helicopters more effectively here if they had more places to land and refuel. Some good comes out of even situations as bad as this one: I hope.