London/Glasgow Non-Bombs

[Sundae]

From the original link
Snipped for brevity but I don't think I've taken anything out of context:

Today we have news from London, where a "big [explosive] device" was discovered inside a parked car near Piccadilly Circus. The device consisted of petrol, propane gas cylinders, and nails... Bomb disposal specialists made it safe, and police officials and politicians began slyly invoking the terrorist bogeyman. Heaven forbid the public should be starved of their regular fear rations.

The bogeyman doesn't exist. Someone drove a car into the West End with the intention of either hurting as many people as possible, or at the very least causing terror through fear and disruption. The definition of terrorism, surely?

"As the police and security services have said on so many occasions, we face a serious and continuous threat to our country", day-old PM Gordon Brown said. "But this incident does recall the need for us to be vigilant at all times and the public to be alert at any potential incidents."

I don't think that response was overblown in any way. There is a threat in this country. We should be alert. The ambulance crew could have shrugged off a smoking car, but even this article admits it would probably have led to an explosion.

"It is obvious that if the device had detonated there could have been serious injury or loss of life", Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke intoned gravely. Ah, if it had detonated. Yes, it could have been a real horror...

[Without detonation] then the propane will ignite, and a nice fireball will blossom. A fireball, not an explosion. Oh, the Piccadilly fireball would have blown the car's windows out, and popped its doors open, and sent various bits like mirrors and so forth into the air at velocities possibly fatal to people nearby... Yes, they might have injured or killed one or two passers-by, but any body count would have come in spite of them, not as a product of their efforts.

I can't see that this would have been a comfort to those injured or the families of those killed.

I'm not saying this was a competant and terrifying act of terrorism. But certainly our broadsheets aren't saying that either, whatever the tabloids scream - tabloids are always screaming something (usually about benefit scrounging foreigners if you look at the right wing press).

However you look at it, it was an attempt - however amateur - by British nationals to main and preferably kill other British nationals. I will therefore take it as seriously as when it was the IRA doing the same.

I think to spin this incident to make out that the police and the Governement are rubbing their hands with glee at the opportunity to make people stop parking their cars outside Heathrow unnecessarily is simplistic and incorrect. I know there are people who think that all governments are power-hungry and will do anything they can to control people's lives - personally I think they have enough on their plates already.

It's hard to know just what measures are necessary following an attack. Personally I think such a bungled attempt shouldn't result in so much disruption. I'd be willing to take my chances at the airport with no-one to blame but my own blase attitude if I get in the way of a flaming Jeep. I don't have that choice, but then I accept that society limits my choices when I accept the benefits.