Is it time to stop telling people to be scared...

[Mich the Tester]

...and to stop telling people to report anything remotely out of the ordinary, stop suspecting fellow citizens of wanting to blow things up, stop worrying and get on with life and accept that if, in the extremely unlikely event that you are caught up in an act of terror, there's probably bugger all you could have done about it?

Fake cigarette triggers major M6 anti-terror incident - Telegraph

[Spacecadet]

I wonder how many millions of pounds that all cost

[MarillionFan]

Whatever next? Banning taking drinks on planes and having to take your shoes off at security?

[minestrone]

I create my trouble when I take my shoes off.

[Mich the Tester]

Whatever next? Banning taking drinks on planes and having to take your shoes off at security?

Yeah that's a pain in the arris too. Fooking pointless seeing as modern terrorists just stick some chemicals in their undies and fail to detonate them.

[Diver]

I will in future only notify the police once I am well clear of the scene and out of the "unavoidable delay" zone.

Unless of course there are small children and babies present, as these could potentially be used to construct a blast wall

Anyway, I'm surprised that nobody said to the passenger "Is there anything in your bag that could create smoke?"

and then tazered said passenger in the face

Just to be sure

[Mich the Tester]

I will in future only notify the police once I am well clear of the scene and out of the "unavoidable delay" zone.

whs

[the_rangdo]

The whole thing smacks of a pre-olympic test.

Convenient location, right after the tolls so the traffic would normally be slow and makes it easy to seal off the motorway.

No-one seems to know who the mystery reporter of the smoke is, even a suggestion it was called in by a passing car. None of the passengers interviewed on TV seemed to have a clue what happened.

War games.

</tin-hat>

[BrilloPad]

Why do people buy these really expensive fake cigarettes when they can get really cheap real ones at the local newsagent?

[Mich the Tester]

M6 fake cigarette terrorism alert: 'We could have been shot' say passengers - Telegraph

Miss von Kangur, 20, said: "Everyone was terrified. Some people thought it was a bomb, or a suspected terrorist attack while others thought we might have an escaped prisoner on board. Some people were cuddling their children and some were crying. We were very afraid."

So nobody thought to ask the person with the 'e-cigarette' what it is? Didn't the emergency services telephonists suggest to ask the chappy what he was doing?

I'm sad to see this; here in NL I often feel that I'm living in a nation that's becoming more and more asinine by the day, and my hope that Britain might avoid this trend is being destroyed.