Compare & Contrast

The Government is whining again:

The government has criticised a BBC programme dramatising a terrorist attack on London as "alarmist and irresponsible"......

Home Secretary David Blunkett declined to take part in the show, and condemned it as unnecessarily alarmist.

"We are disappointed to learn that the BBC appears to have adopted an irresponsible and alarmist approach over what is understandably an emotive and frightening subject for the public," a Home Office spokesman told BBC News Online


"Irresponsible" - has there ever been such a weasely phrase ? What really tees me off about it is the implication that you can't tell the public the truth otherwise we'll all freak out and revert to cannibalism, or something. All things considered, it's the Government not the public that appear to live in a fantasy world, as proven here:

THE Army and police will commandeer coaches and trains to move hundreds of thousands of Londoners out of the city in the event of a massive terrorist attack.

Would that be the Army that's been slashed to the bone ? Never mind the problem with soldiers deserting to protect their own families (and no doubt taking their weapons with them), what of the Police ? Here's people who almost all will have family in the affected areas - are they just going to stay at their posts and let their kids die ?

And about those coaches ? What about the disabled ? Will people just pile on the coaches and leave their possessions behind ? Never mind looters, will they leave Rover and Tiddles ? Not always.

The fantasy continues:

They will set up roadblocks to create fast exit routes for vehicles, and councils outside London, particularly in the Home Counties, would arrange temporary accommodation for evacuees, according to contingency plans disclosed yesterday.

And what if Joe Desperate crashes one of the blocks in his 4x4 ? Shoot him ? And where are these wide open spaces down south, let alone the materials for tempoary accomadation. And about that accomadation - even assuming that 250 000 people can be accomadated under plastic, what about saniatation ? Law & order ? For that matter, what about insulin for the diabetic and other more specialised forms of care ?

No, it's all garbage and it sums up entirely what the Home Office means when it says 'irresponsible'. Such planning as there is, is merely a fig leaf. A means to provide the public with a bogus reassurance. This government will not take the measures necessary to protect the public, so instead they rely on Mickey Mouse measures like this and crossed fingers. How irresponsible of people to call rubbish rubbish - it might lead the public to demand real protection, thereby threatening the TINO/L3 establishments sacred cows. Back into the sand with your heads: we may be fighting for our lives, but what is life compared to Liberal posturing ?