I’d like to apologise for coming from a country full of fatuous, paranoid idiots.
Garr. People believe there’s more danger of WWIII than there was in the darkest days of Cold War mania, despite there not being any credible military threat whatsoever to the west [*], 40% of people believe in ghosts (war-provoking ghosts, perhaps?), 25% of people believe MI6 killed Princess Di, and 90% believe they’ll be with their current partner for the rest of their life.
And these people vote. *And* they vote for someone mildly less reprehensible than most of the people running places in the world.
*thinks*
On that basis, maybe they’re right about WWIII after all.
(via Matt Turner)
[*] "The west", not "a few thousand westerners"; the latter will certainly be exploded by assorted terrorists, not that the risk’s worth worrying about if you smoke, drink or eat pies.
You are as bad as the people you criticise with your denial of the threat.
Call yourself a rationalist?
He doesn’t deny a threat. But he points out that it is not a threat of World War III. It is not a military threat. It is a threat that will, unless there is some spectacular increase in terrorism, on top of atrocities like 9/11, Bali and Madrid, kill a few thousand westerners a year. Absolutely horrible. But so are all the other causes of a few thousand horrible deaths. Or perhaps, the causes of millions of deaths that don’t affect westerners, but certainly could be prevented by a change to, for example, our systems of property rights and research priorities.
John, I thought this was my argument. First there was the threat of Nazi Invasion (real; confirmed by historians) and then there was the Cold War (ditto; ditto). Neither needed this level of panic or draconian legislation.
Eric, we’re not denying the threat. We’re saying the British people have enough spine and courage to cope. You’re the one in denial. We’re a great country. We’ve been through worse. If you think the sky is falling, get thee to the henhouse, and stay there.
People used to say to me, "Why don’t you move to Russia?" I’ve seen the error of my ways now, but don’t you think Putin is a fine fellow?
"If you think the sky is falling, get thee to the henhouse, and stay there."
Luck Turkey Lurkey et al, the fact is that we are a great country and all these hyperbole worrying about Blunkett is just stupid. Anyone would think that our government is more of a threat than the terrorists.
That is the real "sky falling in" syndrome, and Mr Fox will have you all for tea if you don’t watch it. So there.
Interesting to note that people like you and John are doing exactly what Bush and Clinton were accused of prior to 911 – which is miscalculating the threat from Al Qaeda.
The Independent has an interesting take on the ‘Canary Wharf’ story:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/story.jsp?story=586062