If you've not seen this yet...

[spudtater]

The British are feeling the pinch in relation to recent attempted bombings and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." Brits have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorised from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was during the great fire of 1666.

Comments

[gominokouhai]

Don't ever call me childish unless you can back it up, which in this instance I suspect you can't. I'm not the one tilting at windmills here.

If you're going to act like a Key Insider who knows all about what's going on among the top brass in the war rooms, then you're going to have to take some responsibility for the fucking state this country is in. That's thinking ``wider''. Otherwise, you can admit that you are a civilian functionary attached to a local police force that hasn't even been the location of any terrorist incident.

The only extra work you're going to have to do is deal with the flood of complaints created when your blackshirts start coming up with new and interesting ways to abuse their new extended powers of unlimited stop and search.

(Why did you get rid of the white shirts anyway? Are you trying to look like thugs?)

[markadm.livejournal.com]

I don't have to admit anything; you seem to forget I do have some personal experience with counterterrorist incidents, and have knowledge of what the Police get up to. When I say "think wider", I mean realise the efforts and machinations that do go on, and have to go on in all Forces. Don't try and conflate the governance of this country, which is the purview of BlairBrown, etc., with the Police service's responsibility of guard, watch and patrol.

Oh, and don't try and do the "you're just a civilian thing". We're all civilians; in my case the lack of powers under the Police (Scotland) Act is irrelevant.

Use of section 44 still has to be proportionate...

[gominokouhai]

> you seem to forget I do have some personal experience with counterterrorist incidents

I didn't forget; I didn't know in the first place. Unless you're talking about G8, in which case I think there's something of a difference, but that's neither here nor there since you still would have more experience than me.

> I mean realise the efforts and machinations that do go on

Go on then: what, exactly, are you having to do now that you weren't having to do this time last week? All of the perpetrators of the latest hilarious jape are in custody. The threat assessment has been downgraded again. We are no more at risk now than we have been for the last thirty years—I would say significantly less so: at least the IRA actually knew how to make a bomb that had a chance of going off.

> Don't try and conflate the governance of this country[...] with the Police service's responsibility

I'm trying not to. That's exactly why I want your boys back out on the Grassmarket where I need them and not industriously strip-searching everyone of a vaguely brown complexion.