Terror threat raised from "substantial" to "severe"

[mateykatie]

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8476238.stm

Does it mean anything, or is it another "45 minutes"?

The government is having an awful day with what has happened in Doncaster, after all...

Just saw this on the news What does it mean?

I doubt it means much.

First it says "Mr Johnson stressed there was no intelligence to suggest a terrorist attack was imminent."

Then it says "JTAC kept the threat level under constant review, making its judgments based on a broad range of factors, including the intent and capabilities of international terrorist groups in the UK and overseas."

I suspect that means they sit around saying "ok so we said we'd allow 20 points for an attempted hijack, 24 for attempted bombing, 4 for each public demonstration in islamic countries, 3 for each anti-west speech"

"so that makes..."

Well, they change the noticeboard by the reception desk of Whitehall departments, from 'substantial' to 'severe'. Not sure quite how that protects us all from terrorism, mind....

hm interesting,but they havent said much have they? worrying.

don't know but in my working class book

"highly likely" and "strong possibility" mean basically the same thing - a bit like "a good chance of it happening" ..............

well am due to give birth imminently. If it kicks off and I don't get to go to hospital I am going to find the terrorist responsible and make him/her eat the placenta (after my PFB is born safe and well obviously!).

Really don't need to read about this stuff now especially not living in London. Bah.

It'd be some use if they actually told the public what the hell we are supposed to do with that information. Apart from being even more keen to report unattended baggage or people whose pants are on fire.

i should hope it is severe

There's an election coming....its prob just to get the country ralling around Brown...nothing like a perceived threat to unite a country etc etc!

argh i meant i hope they are still treating the threat as severe

It's an excuse in case anything does (God forbid) happen: 'well, we told you it was dangerous out there...'

Or maybe an attempt to distract everyone from the Edlington trial, or Gordon Brown's upcoming performance before the Chilcott Inquiry putting Iraq back on the agenda. Or some other bad news they are trying to slip out while everyone's busy worrying about terrorism.

I suspect it's not the "terror threat" that's been raised from substantial to severe, but the "Need for some kind of distraction away from the parlous state of the economy and the mountains of bullshit being shovelled in the Chilcot Enquiry".

Tanks circling Heathrow, anyone?

I like the quote, though, "Mr Johnson stressed there was no intelligence"
yep, sounds about right.

nighbynight!

(Although am uncomfortably aware I'm following you around grinning tonight...)

we have just had an Incident at Munich airport, and they are talking about upping security. It used to be a lot slacker than in London, but I think they will be on their toes all over Germany now.
tbh, I am put off flying now, having spent the night on Stansted because of security scares, TWICE, and nude security cameras are just the last straw. What more undignified hoops will people jump through to keep their late 20th century lifestyle intact?

Haven't seen it yet but Newsnight flashed up an image of the Guardian front page showing the cops are apparently going to be sending up CCTV spy planes - drones - to monitor us all.

The only problem with George Orwell is that he got his dates wrong and didn't go quite far enough...

They're always buggering about with it - it was severe for about 4 years, but they downgraded it to substantial fairly recently. Occasionally it goes up to 'attack imminent' (usually after an attack ) but then they have to take it down after a couple of days otherwise they'd have to invent a new level, maybe 'Oh shit'?

Suicide 'Bummers? is the next big thing, came up on PMQ, and I think they?re trying to down play it in the media see hear

I grew up in Northern Ireland in the 80s and amuse my self by imagining what would have happen at a NI paramilitary strategy meetings if the subject came up and a call for volunteers happened for it.

?On er..Is that the time? Gota go the dukes of hazards on..?

Look, when it comes down to it, shit happens, no matter what you do, but they win if you live in fear

'Deary me, there hiding them em up there biscuits now'

It's because Blair is up to give evidence next week - the government want the stupid and gulible to think that he was doing it for our own good as we are under the threat of iminent attack!

Election sooner rather than later now?

We aren't supposed to be doing anything dittany - we are supossed to watch Blair next week and believe that he was right in taking up into this war because we are all under the threat of being blown up by terrorists.

Tube train doors open asian man with backpack steps in, carriage empties, asian man gets any seat he wants to work.

All this does is threaten one part of the community, especially as there is 'no intelligence', everyones going to be starring at women in burka's etc.

So Hillary Clinton's coming to town for the meeting on afghanistan and yemen, why raise the threat level?

I don't think it gives Blair an advantage, if anything it damages him more, before we went into the illegal war we didn't have suicide bombers on our buses and tubes.

It's not just the government that decides to put up the terror rating, it's a JIC (Joint Intelligence Committee) decision made in conjunction with the government. Why would the DGs of MI5 and 6 care who misses what Blair says at the inquiry?