Terror threat level: Hysterical?
Ha ha. Ha. Meh.
*Sigh* And what does this do...
UK Terror Alert Critical: Attack Imminent
apart from just scare us all even more?
( Rhetorical question)
And it keeps raining. And raining. Rubbish. I'm fed up. I'm staying in with Life on Mars 2 and pizza.
UPDATE: 'Re. terror alerts 'If it moves to critical, you should worry," commented a senior Whitehall source''.
Oh for heaven's sake. We ''should worry''. That's the suggestion is it? The official advice is: to be afraid and stay afraid? And what pray, does being told ''to worry'' do to help aid the fight against terrorism? Terrorism being of course designed to worry, nay, terrify and terrorise people, using terror: the state of being afraid?
Very clever. Almost as smart as the terrorists, who have also only managed to hurt themselves so far ( Al-Qaeystone?)
"We will not allow anyone to undermine our British way of life." said Gordon Brown)
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the British public would not be "intimidated or let anyone stop us getting on with our lives".
What is the ''critical - attack imminent'' stuff then, if not intimidating, and likely to make people anxious and therefore stop them getting on with their lives? I can see why they thought it sounded like a good idea, well-meaningly, when it was wheeled out last year - but like most of the new anti-terror intitiatives, all it does is sound scary and ramp up the fear without actually doing anything practical to tackle the situation. The UK terror alert system is a complete own goal. It hurts us, not those who attack us. We didn't have this during the IRA campaign or during the Blitz, so I don't see why turning the adrenalin dial up to eleven is going to help now. We can all see the news, thank you. We don't need to have our strings pulled like this.
Labels: bad news
posted by Rachel at 10:02 pm
Cheers, Rachel, I'd ask if I could come over and share, just knowing we have the same weather. Surely we must live nearby?
Not really, we're quite a distance apart, but going on 19 days straight of rain. Don't laugh! It's the longest period of rain since 1935, hahaha.
That's a great t-shirt. And yeah, those "terror alerts". Keep us all in tow.
Yep, and I'm shitting bricks! Darn painful, but hell, I have more important things to do, than to keep on worrying how scared I should be.
Sheesh.
Yes the main story is still the terrible floods in Sheffield and also whether Brown is going to try and sort out the general mess with the economy, health, education, civil liberties and iraq (to mention just a few) that he was responsable for.
Real news from the independent:
Aides of the former prime minister are extremely worried about what Lord Levy, a member of Mr Blair's inner circle, could say in the witness box if the case goes to trial.
Opposition politicians said his testimony could be incendiary. "If Levy goes on trial, Blair will be the key witness," said Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay, a senior Liberal Democrat.
Ruth Turner, the former Downing Street aide who was arrested in January as part of the inquiry, has not been reinterviewed by the police, but may yet be contacted.
Mr Blair's aides repeatedly denied that the former prime minister had been contacted again by the police when asked by The Independent on Sunday. Mr Blair, who was not interviewed under caution, is said by friends to feel guilty that close colleagues, such as Ms Turner and Lord Levy, have been dragged into the cash for honours investigation.
Putting my cynic hat on for a second... maybe, as one's first act as prime minister, fighting terrorism is a little more politically glamorous than unblocking the country's drains, all of which were in major need of repair before the flooding and directly contributed to it...
"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
Sound familiar, change a few words here and there, and you get a good idea of how Gord & his team may try to add to the anti-terror laws.
Otherwise, what me worried ?
Came by to lend my support and thoughts to you and all my pals in the UK.
~Deb
Thank you for this post. It made me more clear headed. And you are right!
The recent lucky escapes proves the point that we need to put more pressure on the government to withdraw British troops from Iraq, and to start improving our dialogue with Muslims in the UK. Sadly, it seems, Gordon Brown isn't listening... will he tolerate a successful attack before he gets the message?
I love all this "If you don't do this you are letting them win" crap.
Win what? If I run around screaming "We are all going to die!" what have they won?
Ah, allow me to explain. The terror threat is now "critical". This means that we should go about our daily lives as normal - completely as normal - but occupy our minds with WORRYING. This WORRYING is very important. If we do not focus all our attention on this WORRYING we might notice our civil liberties being neatly swept away with the litter in the street.
http://cruellablog.blogspot.com/2007/07/critical-thinking.html
Nice blog by the way, come and have a look at mine, I am in norfff london too. I would be up for swapping links if you let me know...!
Is it me or does it feel like it's been raining all year apart from April?
I'm fed up of hearing on the news that people should carry on as normal after these latest foiled attacks. Everyone they've spoken to says they are carrying on as normal so again it's the media putting fear in people's minds.
Watch Adam Curtis "Power of Nightmares" again, with some great bits and his analysis of today's context.
Fatten up the geopolitical and historical analysis of "western" and other "activity" in and around the groups and times portrayed and the multi-layered complex nature of issues surfaces.
Hi Rachel,
Loved Mars I, just bought mars II DVD so looking forward to sitting down and watching it if/when I get home and the time to sit still long enough
Great writing on the blog, chin up for getting through Saturday OK
Regards
robin