How to Keep Calm and Carry On?
IT’S always interesting to note how so-called UK terror levels are reduced in the wake of a particular event. Whilst they initially rise from 'severe' to 'critical', they inevitably drop back down to 'severe'. It all seems very dramatic. Are there no stages in between? I would have preferred to see a gentle transition between the two. Perhaps, just after 'severe', they could have included a 'Mossad-are-just-finishing-their-bagels-and-should-be-with-you-fairly-soon' status and then something like 'take-cover-folks-this-is-going-to-hurt'. And then, once we get beyond the 'critical' stage, the needle on the terrormeter could peak with 'react-with-fury-blame-ordinary-Muslims-join-a-nazi-organisation-and-set-fire-to-a-mosque-by-saturday-teatime' level.
Seriously, though, are there really people out there who were thinking about popping down to the local shop to buy the cat some tuna but then decided to lock themselves indoors with a good book and a mug of hot tea on account of the vague possibility that they might - just might - be blown to smithereens in the twenty-first aisle?
Judging by the way the mass media likes to report on these fluctuating terror levels, there must be millions of people who structure their entire day around jihadi bogey-men in the way that a pedestrian who thinks jaywalking is a cardinal sin dare not move a muscle until the all-commanding green man has appeared. Prior, that is, to being mown down by a transgressive lorry driver.