Space Hijackers have driven their armoured vehicle through the City, making it as far as the Royal Bank of Scotland – much to the amusement of everyone bar the police.
Like Charlie, I wonder whether they – the police – are making a mistake by fixating on demonstrators, rather than lower probability/higher impact threats, and on the capital, rather than the rest of the UK.
After all, the attack on the 2005 G8 came from Islamist terrorists and was not on Gleneagles itself (where security was suffocatingly high).
Following that pattern, I’d expect the threat level to be highest tomorrow morning – and in a city other than London, where many fewer security precautions have been taken. Given the Lahore cricket attacks, I wonder whether tonight’s football international at Wembley might be a target.
Panic not necessary. But a good time to be vigilant…
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David Steven is a senior fellow at the UN Foundation and at New York University, where he founded the Global Partnership to End Violence against Children and the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, a multi-stakeholder partnership to deliver the SDG targets for preventing all forms of violence, strengthening governance, and promoting justice and inclusion. He was lead author for the ministerial Task Force on Justice for All and senior external adviser for the UN-World Bank flagship study on prevention, Pathways for Peace. He is a former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of The Risk Pivot: Great Powers, International Security, and the Energy Revolution (Brookings Institution Press, 2014). In 2001, he helped develop and launch the UK’s network of climate diplomats. David lives in and works from Pisa, Italy.
