UK terrorism threat raised to highest level
Following the failed car bombs in London and a burning car at Glasgow airport, the emergency COBRA committee has raised the UK terrorism threat to its highest level of critical. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6257606.stm

Saw bits of it on the news here. Those car bombs sounded disturbing, but what were those blokes with the burning car thinking?

I never realised you had levels. :(

Practically every country has them, has to do with certain security measures you take, readiness of certain services etc etc. It makes more sense from a practical point of view. Eemergency services, government institutions, the miitary, they all need 'orders' on which they are supposed to operate. (availability of personell, equipment for instance) The assesment wether to operate on a certain level depends on so many variables it always seems a bit vague why a certain level is used.

But in how many countries are the geneal populace aware of such levels? Do they need to know? Are they numbered or perhaps colour-coded for better "accessibility"? It just comes off as scare-mongering to me, which is why I am disappointed that the UK, which is usually so lever-headed about terrorism and such has a system like that, but perhaps I just don't understand the finer working of it as an outsider.

Great Britain has had to confront outsiders since 1066 and before :wink: so we are well prepared to ignore scare mongering. Any one is now suspect! I sat in a glass covered shopping mall last week and nearby was a white man, 20-something with a rucksack: glass + stranger = heightened awareness but I thought 'it couldn't happen here' ........ phew, was glad to get out of there! It still amazes me the number of people in supermarkets that leave their trollies at the ends of aisles whilst fetching the groceries - in Belfast the store would be closed pronto - just in case! Any left parcel/bag/trolley over there woudl be viewed with suspision. I make a greatly loud moan and groan about it much to hubby's :oops: We need to know that people hate us so that we can take measures to avoid them. World War II etc. has left a 'spirit' during such times which we can reproduce at the drop of a hat! How much is Iraq/Afghanistan driven we will never really know. But life goes on, don't think level headedness comes into it; what else can we do: as we saw with the Princes party at Wembly yesterday. :D Those blokes in the car probably believed they were on their way to a 'higher' level ....... anything that happens like this is a disruption to our way of life, even if a bomb never went off again, the threat in a closed space means precautions and avoidance measures which affects us all.

It's not just WWII that has hardened us to terrorist attacks, 30 years or so of IRA bombings and bomb threats, the terrorists just don't seem to realise that they can't terrorise or bomb us into submission. Most commuters on public transport in and around London certainly, regard terrorist threats as a minor irritation compared to fighting with London Transport and the train companies. Storm Raven