Festung Parliament
The apparently leaked plans to block off streets around the Palace of Westminster in the Times report "Trouble brews in the House over anti-terrorism plans" and yesterday's Observer report "Terror fears spark plan to seal off Parliament " seem to be very strange.
How is it possible to close Westminster Bridge, and Parliament Square, to supposedly protect against truck bombs ? If, as has been suggested, buses and taxis are still permitted , has everyone forgotten how these vehicles have been used in the past by Irish terrorists e.g. the second hand taxi cab bomb used outside the BBC White City, or stolen buses in Northern Ireland. In some cases, legitimate vehicles, with the appropriate security passes, have been used, where the driver's family has been held at gunpoint to get him to drive the bomb vehicle to the target.
Any barriers which can physically let through buses, will be wide enough to let through a heavy goods vehicle. Even police guards armed with Heckler & Koch sub machine guns are not enough to stop a lorry driven at speed from crashing through a barrier. Much heavier weapons would be needed, in which case, where exactly are the "killing zones" going to be at the edges of the blocked off streets, and how many innocent casualties would be caught up in any cross fire ? Should this "kill zone" extend up Whitehall to bring Downing Street into the cross fire ?
Any such checkpoints which only allow VIP vehicles to approach Parliament automatically become ambush points like at the edge of the "Green Zone" in Baghdad, where the leader of the interim Council was recently assasinated.
Map of Parliament Square and Whitehall
Are these "leaks" part of some hidden agenda between Government Minister Peter Hain and the Speaker of the House of Commons, both of whom have failed so miserably when it comes to the actual security of the Chamber of the House of Commons as demonstrated by the purple flour incident and the waste of moey on the "security screen", whilst still not enforcing systems which would tell if there were any people still inside the building when it is evacuated due to an alarm or a practice drill (which never seem to happen).
Should the concrete blocks outside of the Palace of Westminster be removed ? Many people feel that they are not actually a high enough obstacle - the politicians can still get out.
Is it possible for the "Westminster village" of politicians and their hangers on to cut themselves off from contact with the people of the UK any further ?
The best protection for Parliament is to re-iterate that it is pointless for terrorists or others to try to kill any or all the politiicians inside, because we will democratically replace them, and the attackers will not have won.