most of what he said was spot on but then he had to spoil it by this piece of rubbish :

"I recall the most courageous thing I ever saw a politician do. Within hours of escaping an assassination attempt in 1984" etc etc blah blah

Special Branch had already ensured there were no more devices. It was a publicity stunt that worked but the re-writing of history and the invoking of the Cult Of Maggie is reaching ludicrous levels.

This is no different than talking about the "brave victims" of sex assaults who come forward 40 years later.

Courageous is continuing to live in a village in Iraq or Afghanistan after we have bombed the be-Jesus out of them or sent drones to kill their wedding parties.

Walking into a room to give a speech to a bunch of Tory drongoes with the might of the British army and police behind isn't courageous.



oh wait ...he did qualify it with the word politician !!..but that doesn't mean much.

We'll have to agree to differ on Maggie Hedda but Simon's crucial and vital point is - remove the oxygen of publicity from people who kill and murder and bomb and you'll UNINSPIRE those thousands of copycat loonies.

If nobody ever sees the faces or hears the names of mad people who shoot school children, a huge percentage of future incidents will not happen.

"I'll be famous even if I'm dead" is an attractive prospect for some crazies; "Nobody will ever know I did it" is a less tantalising prospect.

JK2006 wrote:
We'll have to agree to differ on Maggie Hedda but Simon's crucial and vital point is - remove the oxygen of publicity from people who kill and murder and bomb and you'll UNINSPIRE those thousands of copycat loonies.

If nobody ever sees the faces or hears the names of mad people who shoot school children, a huge percentage of future incidents will not happen.

"I'll be famous even if I'm dead" is an attractive prospect for some crazies; "Nobody will ever know I did it" is a less tantalising prospect.

didn't work then did it.

terrorist incidents since 1984: (courtesy Wikipedia )

1990: Wembley
1991: Mortar attack on 10 Downing Street
1991: A bomb explodes in Paddington Station,
1992: Small device exploded Whitehall Place.
1992: A bomb explodes at London Bridge station
1992: Baltic Exchange bombing:
1992: A large bomb explodes underneath the A406 flyover
1992: A device exploded in the gentlemen's toilet of the Sussex Arms public house in Covent Garden, killing one person and injuring four others.
1992: the IRA planted a bomb at Canary Wharf in the Docklands.
1992: A bomb hidden in a litter bin in a third-floor men's lavatory of the John Lewis department store
1993: a bomb exploded in a litter bin outside Harrods,
1993: a bomb exploded in a litter bin outside a McDonalds restaurant in Camden Town
1993 Bishopsgate bombing
1993: Over eight days, a series of IRA bombs were left in various London locations.
1994: Heathrow Airport, The IRA launched a series of mortar attacks
1996 Docklands bombing: the IRA bombed the South Quay area of London, killing two people.
1996: A 5-pound (2.3 kg) bomb placed in a telephone box is disarmed by Police on the Charing Cross Road.
1996: An IRA bomb detonates prematurely on a bus travelling along Aldwych
1997: Britain's transport industry claimed minimum losses of £30 million after a series of IRA bomb alerts in southern England

and so on.

You are in the grip of the Cult Of Maggie and there is no cure.