Car crash outside Westminster

[youarenotkiddingme]

Now it's just happened as RG was outside reporting for GMB.

No one knows what happened or why and if it's suspicious or not.

But I think the fact the immediate reaction was for armed police, no one to approach the car until they arrived and a huge cordon was applied once they'd seen driver shows that we do in fact live in a time where the suspicion is always the worst rather than the best.

Thank goodness no one else other than the driver is involved.

A baby was delivered on the M25 yesterday due to the pile up.
It's actually another example of the dedication and skill set of our emergency services.

Yes there is a heavy presence of armed police but they weren't the ones in the immediate vacinity - the police there waited for specialist? Armed response.

Eye witness reports say car was going at speed, possibly hit cyclists before it went off into the lay-by and barriers?

Area reported to be 'sanitised' (whatever that means) and the police have confirmed it's a terrorist cordon. Whether that means suspected or investigation if we won't know I suppose until they know.

Sky news have just shown a shot of a man being held by police and handcuffed.
I'm not sure I agree with that as if it was a genuine loss of control his face will always be related to a suspected terror attack.

It's actually another example of the dedication and skill set of our emergency services

Absolutely. I really want to clarify that I wasn’t having a go at the police, or any emergency service. They do incredibly difficult and important jobs, under enormous pressure without the support or funding they should have!

Glad that Met are now saying none of the people injured are believed to be in a life-threatening condition.

I'm not saying politicians should be unprotected either, they represent us, an attack on any one of them is an attack on the whole country.

plus they are far more likely to be targets

They need their protection

what are they "sanitising" the area of? I wonder

It's not just politicians, in fact with parliament in recess most are in their constituencies, but all the staff who work for politicians plus the rest of the Westminster staff.

I know this is probably the wrong response but it's interesting how the politicians have their arses covered by a wonderful police force in London (not police bashing in any way) but haven't done a thing about the 90 murder victims in London so far this year.

Westminster is an obvious, high profile target that has already been attacked several times, so it makes sense to defend it. However it's unrealistic to imagine that even the most well-funded police force could possibly offer a similar level of protection to six million Londoners, any one of whom could be attacked at any time.

Yetalk don't worry I didn't for one minute think you meant that!

youarenotkiddingme oh good, I’m glad.

However it's unrealistic to imagine that even the most well-funded police force could possibly offer a similar level of protection to six million Londoners, any one of whom could be attacked at any time

Well funding to protect the ones they’ve been warned about first would be a start! Which comes from Parliament. The Police can’t dictate their own funding, sadly.

Two people (possibly cyclists?) Injured, treated at the scene and taken to hospital. According to news reports.

As well as the office base for parliament, it is also a very popular tourist attraction for members of the public. Like many other tourist attractions in London and elsewhere it has a high police presence - not simply for the protection of the MPs, but also for the many members of the public who visit their on holidays, and the members of the public who work there.

YeTalkShiteHen - living up to your name I see. If the police knew where a murder was going to take place then no doubt they would be in place to prevent it.

The handy thing about the Houses of Parliament is that they seldom move about. So if you know where a potential high possibility target is it makes sense to have people there.

YeTalkShiteHen - living up to your name I see. If the police knew where a murder was going to take place then no doubt they would be in place to prevent it

They'd had calls about the elder brother of the wee boy who died and revenge attacks being planned. They just didn’t have the resources to do anything about it. So careful you’re not talking shite while accusing others of it eh?

Happened quite early at 730am. It is an odd time of year too as everyone, particularly MPs, on holiday. Probably just an accident or an idiot in a stolen vehicle (reports say no numberplate). Likely reason for rapid response is simply the location?

Plus unlike last Westminister there is no increased police presence at main train stations in London (having gone through several this morning).

I wonder if the bomb making days are over now and it’ll all be cars and knives from now on.

Hopefully it shows that the police are discovering bomb making cells before they get to the streets.

Shout out to this good boy

Sceptic here 👋👋👋

Does anybody else wonder what's happening elsewhere that this is covering up?/distracting from?
After Manchester there were a number of smaller "incidents", one where a man drove into pedestrians outside the national history museum when there were kids around, labelled as not terrorist related within about 5 minutes of them happening, not given news time or big investigations.

This happens and within ten minutes it's all over sky news live coverage, the word terror has been mentioned many times.

It doesn't make any sense

The accident outside the natural history museum was an accident, thats why. There are thousands of accidents every day

Area reported to be 'sanitised' (whatever that means)

It means checking that there are no other risks in the area such as bombs, detonators, etc.

That's what I mean. This could well be an accident. I understand it may not be but within ten minutes there was coverage all over the place and the word terror banded about before any investigation but where incidents have happened before that has not happened.
He could be half canned on his way to work but there's a lot of hype and a lot of the word terror used with little facts

But the same happened with the accident outside the Natural History museum. It got far more coverage than it would ordinarily have got. IIRC there was an initial response by armed police but it became clear very early on that it wasn’t terror related.

where incidents have happened before that has not happened

there are thousands of accidents every day. clearly accidents. The "incident" you are describing was an accident, and clearly an accident.

There is no comparison between something that is clearly an accident, and something that is possibly an attack.

sure there is some overlap, and somethng that is possibly an attack may turn out not to be,

but you are comparing common, every day, accidents with incidents that could be an attack.

The man outside the natural history museum was breaking and swerving to try and avoid a collision.

This man drove at speed firstly into cyclists then into a high security barrier in a sensitive area.

Of course one gets more coverage than the other.

I don't know what you expect?

most attempted attacks don't get as far as actually injuring people, and may not be public knowledge, and so don't get coverage, but if someone drives at speed into human beings, then into a highly secured area, of course it is far more newsworthy than someone having an accident

Location location location. Plus it's a busy junction and right next to the tube station and major bridge so would cause, perhaps, more commotion than a single road closure.