RELATIVES of the 7 July London bombers will definitely not be invited to the national remembrance service for the victims, the government announced last night. A spokeswoman for the Department for Culture which is co-organising the event on 1 November said: "The service is intended to provide comfort to the grieving families and friends of the victims. There is no truth in recent coverage which alleges that the families of the London bombers should be invited to the service, or that this was ever going to be the case."
It had been suggested the families of the four bombers who carried out the 7 July atrocities which claimed the lives of 52 people would be invited to attend the event. But the government confirmed the relatives of the bombers would not be on the guest list for the service at St Paul's Cathedral. The spokeswoman said the order of service and the guests were a matter for the Cathedral's Dean and Chapter and the DCMS. She said it would be "inappropriate" to invite the families of the bombers to the event. "We fully understand the anguish of the families of the bombers, but it would be wholly inappropriate to invite them to this service."
She added that the service would be a chance to celebrate the capital's multicultural society. "It also will be an opportunity to be an affirmation of London as one of the world's great cities and an affirmation of our multicultural and multi-faith society," she said. |