by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The Olympics seem to have priority in many, if not indeed all, things this summer in London.
People are being told, basically, to not travel during the peak times when the visitors and VIPs are on the move or expect to be held back for hours before being allowed to do so.
Ambulances without running blues and twos are banned from using the VIP lanes (which means many of the roads) and the fear is that even those ambulance that run sirens and lights will be held up and delayed for quite some time.
So, I guess, the best advice is... stay out of London during the Olympics and for God's sake, don't fall ill or have an accident needing an ambulance.
In addition to that London will be bristling with armed police and especially military in policing and security/anti-terrorism roles that, in my view, it is not going to be safe in the capital during that time anyway.
The truth is that anyone in the least perceived as acting suspicious could find him- or herself being arrested and the word “suspicious” in this context, it would appear, is rather flexible and could mean almost anything.
A Royal Marines assault ship will be moored in the Thames from which they can launch helicopters and troops at a moment's notice. And, in addition to that, it would appear that the sky over London could become a no-fly zone and be filled though with Thales drones, surveillance and otherwise.
In recent days we have seen lots of military helicopter movements, all of them Apaches and other such like, with guns slung under them or missile launchers. It would appear that those flights are done to soften the people up to accept this as routine.
In other words, are we being softened up to accept a new way of policing? It might just be so.
© 2012
