R U OK?

I've never had so many text messages, email round robbins and voicemails as I have in the last few hours. A demonstration of social engineering and email capacity as mailing lists are hijacked or hastily put together to check whether friends and family are ok, are caught up in the mêlé or have a story to tell.

I've been guilty of initiating such checks myself although possibly not to the manic extreme of some others nearby: London's a big place even for a big disaster and the result of everyone jumping on a mobile phone has been to cripple the network and raise greater panic. Perhaps we should all have an 'I'm OK' button on our phones to reassure those who might be worried automatically.

Between personal messages and eyewitness accounts we probably knew more than Blair did when he was on TV at midday. No doubt the background will unfold over the next few hours and days.