Elf Sternberg

Back in the 1970s when the IRA was blowing up London landmarks, I was working at St. Thomas' Hospital -- right across the river from the Houses of Parliament. We had several bomb scares in the area -- usually only resulting in small detours for a couple of hours during which the hospital would be on standby for casualties.

Until one day they discovered a suspicious package in one of the underground tunnels linking the various hospital buildings.

Did they evacuate the hospital? Nope.
Close all the OP clinics and send people home? Nope
Close the ER so it would be available for casualties? Nope.

They closed off the corridor while a couple of guys from the bomb squad investigated. Which took about 90 minutes from first report to end of emergency.

It turned out to be a large cardboard box of plastic cups which had fallen unnoticed off the back of one of the little electric delivery carts they used to ship supplies around the place.

The only reason I knew anything about it was because I tried to go down that corridor just as the bomb squad showed up.

This mind you during a time when car bombs, package bombs, bombs in Harrods, were an almost daily occurrence: This one (http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1973/dec/18/bomb-incidents-london) went off just as the bus I was on passed the entrance to the street. Shook the bus, but didn't do it any damage.

I don't think the massive street closings and security theatre that surrounds incidents like the one you were inconvenienced by today do any good. They just make people unnecessarily afraid and insecure.

Oh. Wait... They're exactly what TPTB want -- frightened people are easier to keep in line.