My first thought exactly. Also sounds reminiscent of the operation at the Iranian embassy.
Listening to the news- the policy seems to be if the person is deemed to be an immediate threat to the police and/or civilians they can take him out.
not neccesarily, british armed police are very highly trained, they are all volunteers and the fail-rate is in the high 70%.
the armed police in the UK concentrate soley on their armed role, rather than it being a 'bolt-on' to finding lost children, catching shoplifters and giving parking tickets.
Ah, Red Ken is about to speak.