so an attack is imminent

[myoriginal3]

AIBU to be a little freaked, living in London?

suicide bomber didn't ramp up he fear. Nope. It was Theresa May. Seriously?
I'm just waiting for some nut to come on and say TM actually planted the bomb.

flowering that link really puts things into perspective. So many of those attacks I hadn't heard about.

When I was an intern (not that we were called that, back in the day), my office was blown up by the IRA one evening. Everyone still turned up for work the next morning. We weren't being brave, we were just used to living with the threat of IRA bombs.

ISIS feels scary because it's a newish threat and because many people are too young to remember living with NI terrorism (from both sides). But - as PPs - have said, the risk is minuscule and far less than a car accident. As a doctor, I can promise you that injuries from road trauma can be every bit as horrific as those from bombings but we don't all panic every time a loved one gets into a car because we are used to the risk and let it fade into the background. We need to do the same with ISIS. The risk to any individual is tiny. And people with severe anxiety should probably avoid social media at the moment - there is a strong social contagion effect that's likely to make their symptoms worse.

The Ira did not always give warnings. And the warnings they did give were often ambiguous. Or wrong. And designed to send people in the wrong direction and designed to target security forces and emergency personnel helping victims of the first bomb

I really really wish people would stop posting that the Ira always gave warnings. Because it is just plain wrong.

None of the terrorist groups in Northern Ireland gave warnings every single time. None.

BTW I mentioned my DC going on school trip into London after another atrocity somewhere and I was told I was ridiculous. Guess what that trip didnt go ahead and a year later the day my dd went into L on school trip was the westminster attack, she wasnt hurt but it goes to show...

I live in London and I'm not scared. I arrived here during the heyday of the IRA bombings. There has always been the threat of terrorism. Statistically it is highly unlikely that any of us are in actual danger.
When I heard of the Manchester attacks I was and still am heart broken for anybody affected. But I'm not scared.
And for anybody who says, there's nothing we can do, I would disagree. It might be naive, but my reaction is to do extra random acts of kindness.

thaydearoctopus can you give some further detail?

Are emergency services asked to sign some kind of waiver if the public aren't aware of the critical status?

I am worried but have no choice but to commute on busy bus and trains in city centre.

shiny we all know cars are dangerous we have laws to try and prevent stupid driving and attacks, its the risk we choose to take with cars,

I do not choose to be killed or maimed or my family wiped out by a pointless stupid nutter on pointless crusade.

deneedenee - it isn't economically and operationally sustainable for long. It was raised after 7/7, but the G8 summit was ongoing at the time.

Their aim is not to make us "scared" or to try and influence political opinion. They want us dead. That's it. They want western civilisation wiped off the planet - Exactly and they don't care if I'm defiant, scared or confused. They only care that there are so many of us alive and they won't stop killing us just because we hold vigils, throw out a hashtag about how united we are and sing kumba-fucking-ya! Sick of people being made to feel like they're letting the side down somehow by saying they are frightened

I'm no fan of the Tories but this isn't a poltical move ffs.

Any advantage they may gain in the polls because of this tragedy will be inadvertant. And utterly irrelevant at this moment in time.

I commute into London. I also live in a town that has an army barracks which could be a target. I have to go to work, I have to live where I do, go shopping in town at the weekend. So I have to get on with it. I am, however, glad I don't have to get the tube as I am within walking distance once I get to London.

However I'm old enough to have worked in London when the IRA were in action. Security is tighter now than it was then and I think people are more alert, too.

Well I shall get up tomorrow and travel on the tube to my job in central London. Fuck them. More chance of me getting run over by a bus or having a heart attack then becoming a victim of a terror attack.

I was a bit worried driving into work. Then I remembered that earlier in the week I was getting really worried about all the diesel fumes my DD is breathing in. That is some genuinely scary stuff. Terrorism causes, on average, fewer than a dozen premature deaths a year in the UK. Air pollution causes 40,000. But dirty air doesn't frighten people anywhere near as much as explosions do.

Imagine if diesel cars emitted zero emissions, but one in every ten thousand would explode randomly. Same death toll, very different political situation. That's why May spoke the way she did today about terrorism, yet recently was slapped down by the courts for failing to address air pollution. That's why terrorist alert levels are taken more seriously than air pollution warnings, even though air pollution warnings are more important. Politics doesn't react to risk, it reacts to fear. And that is precisely why we must all be brave when terrorist attacks happen. Our disproportionate fear of terrorism is why terrorists kill.

But then you will never let them go anywhere? That your decision and fine. But there are risks involved in not allowing them to go anywhere or do anything.

Sick of people being made to feel like they're letting the side down somehow by saying they are frightened

couldnt agree more

I live and work in central London and for the first time in recent years I am actually feeling a but freaked out. Also worried about my dd (year 6) who might hear about this at school - she is prone to anxiety.

BandeauSally yes, on this page about attacks linked to the ISIL there is even another one listed after Manchester, in the Phillippines. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_linked_to_ISIL

"They want western civilization dead". It's not just us. They want all other Islam groups gone too. Everything but themselves.

Our disproportionate fear of terrorism is why terrorists kill

Fuck. Off.

Also agree that ramping up the fear is very handy for Theresa May to be able to divert attention away from the social care fuck up.

Oh look, it's an epidemic of stupidity!

After you with the tinfoil hat.

Guessing will be a lot of visible armed police etc about tomorrow. Security is going to be through the roof.
I think some people find that reassuring, and others find it scary.

You know. There is a whole world out there past the end of London.

The attack if there is one could come anywhere at any time.

It wasn't London last night and it might not be London the next time.

I don't think there is anything wrong in being scared as long as we are not allbarracading ourselves in the house being frightened is a normal reaction

What worries me is that TM makes a point of NOT raising the status. She didn't raise it after Westminster. Before now anyway. I guess it will be reassuring to see the military out and about but that's why they had to tell people.