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thessalianSomeone please explain to me what the shit this "disrupted a terrorist plot" thing is all about?
Okay, yes. I understand. There are apparently terrorists and they want to blow us up. Ooh. Okay. Fine. But the news reports stink of spin-doctored Newspeak bullshit. This whole "major terrorist plot has been disrupted" -- no, actually, sorry, "may have been disrupted" thing reeks of "We think they were gonna but we scared 'em off." Isn't that a good thing? It means they know what to watch out for while causing minimum detriment to the quality of life of people who just want to get on a damn plane and go somewhere! Does anyone remember July last year, when trains got blown up all over London and the BBC interrupted the coverage to air Eastenders and people's basic mood was "Fuck it, let's go down the pub"?
But no, apparently, in the last year, we've become this nation of paranoid schizophrenic arseholes in terms of our security forces. De Menezes. The whole "licenced protests only within a mile of Parliament while Parliament is in session" thing. ID cards and so forth. Now people flying in the UK can only go carrying small clear plastic bags containing the bare minimum of items - wallets, passports, feminine hygiene products and/or prescription medication as applicable, mainly - and you can't bring liquids on the plane because the plot "may have (and there's that 'may' again) revolved around liquids of some kind". My head makes "Clothes Make the Manson" parallels.
Seriously. Going on a plane, you're not going to be in the air for less than 20 minutes, and you're going to be in that plane for a lot longer than that, given the amount of time it often takes to find a fucking runway slot or available gate. That's not even counting the hour or so's wait that is recommended between baggage check and boarding times. Is it reasonable to say that people can only bring in those very basic items and be forced to rely on questionable in-flight entertainment? It's like we're expected to just either put up with it - because of course, we don't have to fly - or we can just stay home. Well, excuse me, but people on business trips are going to be hacked off about being unable to use that wasted time to get some last-minute bits done, and people like me, who fly fairly rather long distances with reasonable frequency, get put off because we stand to be stuck without any form of entertainment bar what the airlines provide for about 12 hours.
You know, I'm really not all that concerned about the 'May' here. Look, intelligence did its job and stopped a threat. Bravo for them. But seriously, aren't they kind of killing the whole "Our nation is a safe nation" image they should really want to uphold (given the whole reason for terrorism is to strike ... oh, gee, terror into the heart of a nation and/or government) by doing all of this? Why can't they say, "We stopped this, we can stop more, so go about your business secure in the knowledge that we are doing our jobs"?
Okay, yes. I understand. There are apparently terrorists and they want to blow us up. Ooh. Okay. Fine. But the news reports stink of spin-doctored Newspeak bullshit. This whole "major terrorist plot has been disrupted" -- no, actually, sorry, "may have been disrupted" thing reeks of "We think they were gonna but we scared 'em off." Isn't that a good thing? It means they know what to watch out for while causing minimum detriment to the quality of life of people who just want to get on a damn plane and go somewhere! Does anyone remember July last year, when trains got blown up all over London and the BBC interrupted the coverage to air Eastenders and people's basic mood was "Fuck it, let's go down the pub"?
But no, apparently, in the last year, we've become this nation of paranoid schizophrenic arseholes in terms of our security forces. De Menezes. The whole "licenced protests only within a mile of Parliament while Parliament is in session" thing. ID cards and so forth. Now people flying in the UK can only go carrying small clear plastic bags containing the bare minimum of items - wallets, passports, feminine hygiene products and/or prescription medication as applicable, mainly - and you can't bring liquids on the plane because the plot "may have (and there's that 'may' again) revolved around liquids of some kind". My head makes "Clothes Make the Manson" parallels.
Seriously. Going on a plane, you're not going to be in the air for less than 20 minutes, and you're going to be in that plane for a lot longer than that, given the amount of time it often takes to find a fucking runway slot or available gate. That's not even counting the hour or so's wait that is recommended between baggage check and boarding times. Is it reasonable to say that people can only bring in those very basic items and be forced to rely on questionable in-flight entertainment? It's like we're expected to just either put up with it - because of course, we don't have to fly - or we can just stay home. Well, excuse me, but people on business trips are going to be hacked off about being unable to use that wasted time to get some last-minute bits done, and people like me, who fly fairly rather long distances with reasonable frequency, get put off because we stand to be stuck without any form of entertainment bar what the airlines provide for about 12 hours.
You know, I'm really not all that concerned about the 'May' here. Look, intelligence did its job and stopped a threat. Bravo for them. But seriously, aren't they kind of killing the whole "Our nation is a safe nation" image they should really want to uphold (given the whole reason for terrorism is to strike ... oh, gee, terror into the heart of a nation and/or government) by doing all of this? Why can't they say, "We stopped this, we can stop more, so go about your business secure in the knowledge that we are doing our jobs"?