American style public terror warnings

[Meh]

From the BBC website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5163938.stm):



A new warning system is to alert the public to the threat of attacks by al-Qaeda and other terror groups.From 1 August, details of current threat levels will be published on the websites of the Home Office and MI5, Home Secretary John Reid announced.

....

The system will show five different threat levels - low, moderate, substantial, severe and critical.


Is this going a step too far? Maybe its the cynic in me, but once you've got the public 'conditioned', its much easier to justify invading other countries. We've had terrorist activity before but never this level of public awareness. Granted that the IRA would phone coded warnings but I can't see how having a security status will help matters.

[Jojo]

Lets see how their websites cope with millions of people logging on each day and visiting just to see if the threat level has changed!

Why do we have to copycat the US all the time - we are (or are supposed to be) our own country with our own mind, but you wouldn't think it the way things have been going lately.

Having a security status could well turn some already worried with terrorism into real panickers. I want to live my life for today, enjoying it with my family hoping that our security services are doing the things they should be doing behind the scenes. Having threat levels aren't really going to help anyone, so why have them.

[Meh]

You know the old joke: when america says jump, we ask how high?

We're a sovereign nation and the state needs to protect its citizens which I don't have a problem with. It's how we implement the policy is where I have issues.

The more I look at the state, the more troubled I get. Indefinate detention, CCTV, national identity cards, war, high crime, robbing the poor to give to the rich - it all stinks to the core. In all honesty, no one is going to check the alert level before they leave home.

"Oh dear. Its severe today so I'll take my bullet proof vest with me"

[Jojo]

You know the old joke: when america says jump, we ask how high? As a country we are losing our own identity because of all this pandering to Bush's every need, whim and want. Why?!


In all honesty, no one is going to check the alert level before they leave home.

"Oh dear. Its severe today so I'll take my bullet proof vest with me" What exactly is it supposed to achieve?! The majority of us aren't going to change what we are doing or wearing just because the alert level has changed (at least i wont anyway).