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@majorrage said in British Politics:
@jc Although not a large one, first incident since I've lived here.
I'm not sure if it's a good, or a bad thing, that nobody in the office is really talking about it. It's on the TV's in the background at work, but isn't really generating a ripple.
So far it is (rightly) being treated as a terror incident. Doesn't mean it is one.
Was a pain in the ass this morning though as a huge chunk of real estate was cordoned off right where I ride through. The Counter Terrorism bunch were out in force, vans and darkened SUVS honing around. Soft cordons set up all over the place as well, even as far as key entry/exit points in Hyde Park.
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A thought just crossed my mind though. These incidents are getting closer and closer to me and I probably need to bail before our paths cross.
The prior Westminster one was simply on a day I was in town. Not an area I frequent at that time of day.
The Borough Market one was at a time I wasn't around but at a place I had been sitting only a week before.
This latest one was a car ploughing through cyclists at a set of traffic lights right where I myself ride and wait every morning. So just the timing was out.
Follow me around if you want to be on the spot for the next one... -
@crucial said in British Politics:
A thought just crossed my mind though. These incidents are getting closer and closer to me and I probably need to bail before our paths cross.
The prior Westminster one was simply on a day I was in town. Not an area I frequent at that time of day.
The Borough Market one was at a time I wasn't around but at a place I had been sitting only a week before.
This latest one was a car ploughing through cyclists at a set of traffic lights right where I myself ride and wait every morning. So just the timing was out.
Follow me around if you want to be on the spot for the next one...I had a similar pattern with flights for a while... every time I landed after a long-haul flight, I'd see news about an aircraft crashing, or being shot-down over Ukraine, or just straight-up disappearing.
I did not inform my travel insurance provider. -
@Crucial Only the one incident for me but dodgy as fuck. Two years ago the Cato family were off on holiday to Corsica, driving down through France and getting the ferry from Nice. On the Thursday we changed our plans and decided to cut short the car journey that evening as it had been a long day. So we stayed in Uzes instead of going all the way to Nice as originally planned. Thank God we did as we would likely have been wandering around the seafront in a post dinner haze when that nutjob went ploughing through all those people. It was still chaos the next day with the main road closed, the secondary one under repair which was also home to the hospital...
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@bones said in British Politics:
@crucial it seems I'm following you around. I was at London Bridge the day before borough and out in Kensington today, which brought me through Westminster tube.
Stalker alert!
I was about an hour and a half out this morning, but even then it kind of proves my theory about whether to be worried about these things. Even if I was there around that time you wait at those lights for 30 seconds max, sometimes even ride straight through. Being there at that exact window of time would be pretty poor luck.
The driver obviously had a plan to try and bust that barrier arm. The way those traffic lights sequence he would have been blocked at a red light in the direction he was going so basically took a detour around the small traffic island onto the wrong side of the road and through the cyclists waiting in the 'bike box' there so he could get a runup.
If nothing else the bloke did very well to get up to 50mph in central London.My theory is that he is some disgruntled individual that lost the plot over a personal issue. No organised or semi-organised terrorism at all.
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@bones said in British Politics:
@crucial yup. Ford Focus doesn't strike me as the best barrier arm buster.
Probably remembered too many movies where those things fly into the air at the slightest hit.
Didn't realise they are steel reinforced and super strong. Made to stop way more than a Ford Focus.Now, if you really wanted to get past them you need to do the old 'slide a motorbike at speed underneath' trick, then flick back up onto two wheels and zoom off before getting shot. I've seen it in the movies so it must be feasible.
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Sad to see in London today but guess it was only a matter of time.
A guy I follow has the following update, will it prove true?
"Prediction - today's terrorist attack will be blamed on Boris Johnson and the "far-right" for their "racist" remarks about the burka and Muslims.
This will make coward politicians suggest tighter hate speech laws, in order to not offend the people who want to murder us.
We'll bend over the table and voluntarily unzip."
Anyway onto something more colourful....
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@rembrandt That is just spiteful and petty. What a splendid use of police time and resource.
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@rembrandt said in British Politics:
A guy I follow has the following update, will it prove true?
"Prediction - today's terrorist attack will be blamed on Boris Johnson and the "far-right" for their "racist" remarks about the burka and Muslims.
This will make coward politicians suggest tighter hate speech laws, in order to not offend the people who want to murder us.
We'll bend over the table and voluntarily unzip."
I really can't see it. The video on the beeb shows the "attack" and it's pretty pathetic. Looks like a mindless brain snap for me.
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@majorrage Looks like the Independent are trying to take that angle, guess we'll see how the story develops.
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@majorrage said in British Politics:
@rembrandt said in British Politics:
A guy I follow has the following update, will it prove true?
"Prediction - today's terrorist attack will be blamed on Boris Johnson and the "far-right" for their "racist" remarks about the burka and Muslims.
This will make coward politicians suggest tighter hate speech laws, in order to not offend the people who want to murder us.
We'll bend over the table and voluntarily unzip."
I really can't see it. The video on the beeb shows the "attack" and it's pretty pathetic. Looks like a mindless brain snap for me.
It does look that way but the police have to take a stronger line initially.
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@rembrandt said in British Politics:
@majorrage Looks like the Independent are trying to take that angle, guess we'll see how the story develops.
Unsurprising. This line will be trotted out by many an organisation regardless, especially given BJ's recent activities.
@Catogrande yeah, agreed, and I also suspect it gives them a lot more powers re what they can do if this is classed as terrorism. It just looks to me like a a complete lack of planning - I mean he doesn't try to take out as many as he can, and also seems to specifically try and crash where he did.
What on earth was he actually trying to achieve?
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Awkward.....
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There hasn't been an 'oh my god what the hell is going on in the UK!" post for a few days now.
How about police looking into prosecuting people for having the audacity to suggest that "Woman don't have a penis"
To be fair these are feminists so they may get off..but the sheer ridiculousness!
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