Irrational Haverings

Front page news in The Scotsman today is a story that Edinburgh, specifically the Edinburgh Festival, is a top terrorist target.

This view comes from Superintendent Brett Lovegrove (and perhaps part-time cabaret singer with a name like that). I don't know if I am more dismayed with Brett for his irrational haverings or with The Scotsman for printing this guff.

Of course, my initial reaction is why does Brett feel the need to inform of us this? Call me cynical but my mind is cast back to the Michael Moore film Fahrenheit 9/11 and the way in which government institutions use scare tactics and vague words about terrorism to ratchet up the fear factor.

Now, it's not like the Labour party have had a run of bad luck in the past wee while and they need to change tack drastically. Oh, wait, hang on... And of course there's good reasons why support in Scotland needs shoring up...

So given the festival is a good 6 months away and there is no suggestion of a credible threat other than the vague wafflings of Mr Groovylove, I think I'll be happy to base myself in Edinburgh for the next wee while with tram delays taking up more of my thoughts than random terror attacks.

But let's look at some of the weird things Brett wishes to share with us:

A good start is comparing paragraphs six and eight:

Paragraph 6 "Unfortunately, it isn't a case of 'if' there will be an attack on Edinburgh but 'when'"
Paragraph 8 "I don't have specific intelligence that Edinburgh is going to be the next target."


The bizarre nature of this story was further reinforced with this truly odd statement:

"We mustn't be stereotypical – a terrorist is just as likely to be a white, blonde woman as opposed to the image many people may hold."

Oh really? Yes, we've found there were a lot of white, blonde women involved in 9/11, 7/7, Spanish train bombings not to mention countless foiled attacks in the UK, you strange, silly, glove-puppet of a man...


And once again, shame on The Scotsman for leading with such a daft, empty story.