OT: Guaranteeing Public safety - who do you think your kidding?

[Old_pie]

“Can you guarantee the public their safety?” he probed.

Amber confidently insisted: “Of course I can guarantee the public their safety.

“We have been ready for a long time for the sort of incidents we have been seeing.

See eg https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv...ng-Britain-ITV

So how come these incidents happen? How come nobody gets hurt? How come people can wandering around with nerve agent or polonium are apprehended before doing any damage?

These nonsensical "reassuring" statements are spewed out everytime some major incidence occurs, "public safety was never threatened" when some massive explosion occurs or a nuclear power station goes wrong.

Things go wrong, nasty people are around, nature has brutal forces. At least Canute had the wisdom to show he was in fact powerless over many things.

[jackal2]

I tend to agree. I'm sure the received wisdom is that those in authority must project a sense of calm and control, but in this era of 24 hour news I think people are much smarter to the realities of the world than they were in the past and they realise we have limited capacity to prevent such acts.

I think people are actually much less 'spooked' by these things than they would have been 30 or 40 years ago, because we see so much bad stuff it has almost become the norm. Let's be honest, a lot of people watch the news these days like a developing soap opera, and the more dramatic the storyline, the more they watch.

[LaxtonLad]

How come nobody gets hurt?? I thought someone had.

"People wandering about with nerve agent..." Do you imagine there are people actually wandering aimlessly about, whistling to themselves, carrying this stuff, swinging it in a Tesco bag? THAT is wandering about, but I would imagine them damn Russkies are a bit more secretive than that.

If Ivan (or Vlad) wanted to poison YOU, no preventative measures could stop him. Perhaps it was an unwise thing for Amber Rudd to say she could guarantee the public their safety but it's no dafter than Ben Shepherd actually asking a loaded question like that. What else could she say? No I can't, take your chances.

[TheBlackHorse]

... Ben the Shep ... just another no-mark media parasite trying to make a name for himself. He probably didn't think of the question; guess the Producer whispered that one to him.

[Mapperleypie]

The attempted murder of a British spy on British soil by a foreign country should be a wake-up call to this government as to the threat posed by Russia. There is little doubt that they see the West as the enemy and will do all they can (via social media and media accounts in general) to pervert democracy by distributing disinformation in other countries for their own ends.

[drillerpie]

The attempted murder of a British spy on British soil by a foreign country should be a wake-up call to this government as to the threat posed by Russia. There is little doubt that they see the West as the enemy and will do all they can (via social media and media accounts in general) to pervert democracy by distributing disinformation in other countries for their own ends.

Indeed. I find it very strange that people on here feel strongly about the loss of sovereignty involved in being in the EU, while Putin ticks people off his kill list on British soil, poisons a copper, carries out cyber attacks on our infrastructure, and nobody seems too bothered.

[TheBlackHorse]

... Snobhead 3 - you more dumb than you think ... of course some 'people' are 'bothered' and nothing to do with EU/sovereignty. It's an aspect of successive British governments that we are involved in espionage probably to a much greater extent than we all realise. Indeed, we may be better off not knowing the extent of our own involvement. So perhaps we should view the numbers of ordinarily undesirables resident in the UK as a trade off for what we may be gaining in intelligence about which we will never know. It's all very messy and not something that will be resolved on 'MAD'.

[cerebellum]

Indeed. I find it very strange that people on here feel strongly about the loss of sovereignty involved in being in the EU, while Putin ticks people off his kill list on British soil, poisons a copper, carries out cyber attacks on our infrastructure, and nobody seems too bothered.

It occured to me that your note suggested that the people who felt strongly about Brexit were the same ones who were worried about the recent attempted murders. I don't think they are.

Unfortunately, when we had the previous case of Russian involvement in the poisoning of Litvinenko (apologies if I've spelt this wrongly) the EU would not support nor help us. Their linkages with Russia are too significant I suppose. For example the Gas supplied to them from Russia.

It seems likely that we would be even less likely to get any support this time! We just have to look after ourselves somehow.

On the other hand if you are saying that such events on another States soil are not of concern then I wondered why?

[jackal2]

Indeed. I find it very strange that people on here feel strongly about the loss of sovereignty involved in being in the EU, while Putin ticks people off his kill list on British soil, poisons a copper, carries out cyber attacks on our infrastructure, and nobody seems too bothered.

I'm not sure it's a case of people not being bothered, more a case of it being outside our control. Whatever response the UK can generate regarding this attack, it's not something the average man or woman in the street has much control over.

Plus, politics/espionage/warfare at international level isn't governed by quaint (religious) notions about what is good or evil. The only thing that determines what is 'right' or 'wrong' or 'good' or 'bad' is whether your actions get you where you want to be in the global power game.

[dam617]

How come nobody gets hurt?? I thought someone had.

"People wandering about with nerve agent..." Do you imagine there are people actually wandering aimlessly about, whistling to themselves, carrying this stuff, swinging it in a Tesco bag? THAT is wandering about, but I would imagine them damn Russkies are a bit more secretive than that.

If Ivan (or Vlad) wanted to poison YOU, no preventative measures could stop him. Perhaps it was an unwise thing for Amber Rudd to say she could guarantee the public their safety but it's no dafter than Ben Shepherd actually asking a loaded question like that. What else could she say? No I can't, take your chances.

Ben Shepherd is on Good Morning Britain?
I only notice Susanna Reid. Hmmmmmmmmmm.......