Reasons to be fearful

Things I have learnt today:

US and Canadian customs have started using information from people’s Wikipedia pages to determine if whether or not they are terrorists:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2469270.ece

The British government has once again decided to use it’s favourite method of undermining any investigation they don’t like – play the man and not the ball. In this case they seem to be attempting to oust the head of the OECD when he is investigating the halting of the BAE investigation.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/armstrade/story/0,,2064191,00.html

The papers have been full, once again, of politicians, civil servants and policemen saying that Al Quaida are planning more attacks. Now that John Reid has built himself a new department whose sole aim it is to look after security and policing I imagine that scaring the bejesus out of us will become a daily occurrence – how else will they be able to justify their budget?

I’m not disputing the security threat from terrorism; it’s just that I don’t feel I have to hear about it all the damn time. It’s like having a child bring home every doodle they’ve ever drawn in nursery school and demanding that it be given pride of place on the sitting room walls.

What, for example, do we do with the information from the Home Office that the threat level is Severe (why the capital S? Maybe it’s not a measure of the threat at all and the Home Office has just decided to name the threat Severe – next week the threat level will be Kevin)? Are we all supposed to hide under the bed until the mythical utopia arrives when people will stop wanting to kill each other and all live together in harmony? History tells us that’s about as likely to happen as my winning gold in the 100m at the next Olympics so I think I will just have to carry on as usual, and wait to see if it will magically move up to critical should the home office budget look to be in jeopardy.


Here are a spattering of the most recent reasons to be fearful:

From The head of Scotland Yard's counterterrorism command
http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,2064947,00.html

From MI6

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1687360.ece

From John Reid

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6590111.stm

From Tony Blair

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6586883.stm

And, of course, John Reid again

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/news/john-reid-gmtv