[MadIvan]

If you want to see the kind of material to which I refer - see Post 53 - in which Britain is described as being only a step away from being France, and in terms of internal security, described as inferior to France.

I will remain - but I hope this clarifies why I am absolutely outraged.

Regards, Ivan

[lentulusgracchus]

I see your point, but I think people who believe Britain is loosey-goosey on internal security are on a poor footing.

Japan was surprised by the gas attack mounted by Aum Shinrikyo, but Scotland Yard found the Mohammedans' Holy Ricin of God before they could use it on anyone. I've seen some pique expressed about shaggy sheikhs slipping through police cordons in London, but the piquerati don't always consider that perhaps there was a reason that the personality of interest slipped away ...... or may have been allowed to slip away.

If I were a London police inspector sincerely interested in meeting all the sheikh's special friends, I might let him slip away to go visit a few of them. Then I could visit them, too, and we could all get to know one another.

Too, people who compare British security unfavorably to France's need to reflect on how many North African Moslems are living in France, and how many attacks on Jews there have been in the two countries, comparatively.