Stephen’s World

Todays News

Something that struck me when I heard today about the foiled bomb attacks on planes out of the UK today is that although the authorities are claiming this as a victory, it wasn’t. So no one got killed, good. But think about it, the knock on effects of this are way bigger than just blowing some planes up.

Think about the disruption, the chaos caused just to air travel for the time the restrictions are in place. Timing was everything, August is really busy time for the airports, thousands of holiday makers, then the usual business travelers, everyone disrupted flights cancelled, I’d hate to think what the monetary effect would be on the airlines. Then, disrupting public confidence in flying, this will last months, maybe even hit the airlines as bad as 9/11 did.

Also think about the business done by those business travelers, think of all the work they do in airports. That would have a big hit with productivity, then all those meetings missed, etc.. So not only the airlines hit, but I bet today some big contracts where lost because someone missed their meeting. If these restrictions become more of a norm, business users will not use the airlines for european travel as the eurostar allows travelers to take their laptop and mobile phone on the train. Business users cannot be out of touch in this way for long.

Normal customers will not stand for not being able to fly long haul without all their bits, I know I wouldn’t. Flying to somewhere like .au without a change of clothes, some tunes, my toothbrush and my laptop would have me climbing the walls and wanting to punch a hold in them for something to do. So I really hope these restrictions don’t last long.

So the aims of the ‘terrorists’ well, they are trying to disrupt the ‘western way of life’ they are wanting to their ‘Islamic state’ which if the Taliban was anything to go on, it would be remove all those freedoms and rights we are all fighting for. Interestingly, everything we are doing is helping the terrorists in achieving their goal. The disruption of our way of life, well the queues in the airports and the canceled planes just prove that one. Then the ‘Anti-Terror’ laws well they are working on removing all those other rights and freedoms. Maybe eventually we’ll be in a police state and we’ll be heralding the terrorists as freedom fighters to free us of the police state… Seriously tho, removal of rights to fight terrorism actually help the terrorists achieve their goals, as we end up dismantling all those rights we’re fighting to protect. Strange that, you end up fighting to protect something that doesn’t exist..