Winners and Losers of Terrorism

Last week saw the arrest on Friday of the three remaining men wanted over the attempted bombings on the 21st of July. Two were picked up in London in an SAS-style raid, while the other was tracked to Italy via his brother's mobile phone. In both cases, you have to admire the efficiency of the police in the operation (particularly how they dealt the difficulties encountered when children emerged as they tried to break into the ground floor flat).

Meanwhile the IRA have announced that they are giving up violence for good, which is great news for everyone concerned. Too many innocent lives have been lost in this conflict over the years, and quite frankly, this was a move that should have been made years ago. Credit where credit is due however, to commit to exclusively peaceful means is a massive step that shouldn't be dismissed as it has been by sections of the Unionist community despite the many crimes over the years, and credit to the Prime Minister for persevering with the peace process. The Unionist community should not forget who should get the praise for this however - David Trimble. If Ian Paisley had his way, the war would still be going on, and there would be no devolved power-sharing Government.

Which is of course exactly what he wanted.

The police have said that they will not have shy away from disproportionately stopping members of certain ethnic groups as they attempt to prevent further attacks on London's transport system (funny that, as when the IRA were bombing this currently I don't remember white people being disproportionately stopped and searched). In fact, the words I think were used were "we are not going to waste time stopping old white women".

As I am not an "old white women" in the fullest sense of the phrase I have come up with some statements that we can use to embarrass the police while they protect the country from the likes of us. After all, if four of us are like that, we must all be like that.

"Thanks for stopping and searching me, you must be one of the good ones; after all, you could have shot me in the head 8 times"

"I don't usually travel on the tube. I usually take the car but have you seen the price of petrol? There must be a war going on."

"Did you know in every young Asian/black male , there is an old white women struggling to get out?"

"Can I have a receipt for that. I've heard that if you get five, you can have a discount on a new rucksack?"

Some people may think these statements are in poor taste, and they are probably right. Just make sure we are stopping and searching based on intelligence rather than base prejudice.