May 18, 2024

Some Light Follow On Reading after Panorama

So Panorama were irresponsible to broadcast a show that said "we're not prepared to fight even the most obvious of terror attacks in London?" I disagree strongly. Where is the planning and the reassurance from the Government? Or are we left with a toothy Blair grin that says "we will bring them to justice" as he invades another country?

Quite frankly, a 5 year old could work out the plan the BBC had. You want to get freaked out? Start reading. Books are so far ahead of their time, are just as scary, and nobody worries about the lessons they give. Look at Terence Strong's The Tick Tock Man, about an IRA campaign of terror around London. It uses the UK Governments preferred method of terrorism (car bombs) but I'm not sure if a tanker full of fertilizer bomb in the middle of the Blackwall Tunnel appears in their contingency planning. It's ludicrous for the Home Office to not even comment on Panorma because they think that a single bomb on a Tube Train is 'unrealistic.'

Of course it's unrealistic. They'd be using multiple bombs, on all the lines, under the major stations and interchanges. There would be mass panic, with 100 dead in each bombed carriage and another 600-700 trapped in each train. And all the other trains stuck Underground. Is it any wonder Vikki and I don't really dwell on this little fact about my daily commute?

Of course there's been some other great fiction that 'foretold' the future. Look at Dale Brown's Storming Heaven. A terorist (Belgian) decides he really hates America and comes up with a brilliant plan to buy some ex-rental 747 planes, fill them full of stuff that goes bang and crash them into major buildings and population centres of America. He finishes the book by attacking the White House and the Pentagon (hmmm), but his targets before hand (such as the main Fed Ex Distribution Centre) are actually even more chilling.

Or how about Richard Cox' Sam 7 from 1978? A shoulder launched surface to air missile takes out an airliner on approach to Heathrow, and drops it slap bang on top of Victoria Train Station in morning rush hour.

I could go on, but I need to read some H P Lovecraft to calm down...

Posted by Ewan at May 18, 2024 09:55 AM
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