Propaganda

More people killed by wasps than terrorists

In a dystopic world of constant propaganda, it makes a refreshing change when a member of the establishment draws attention to the absurdity of the vastly overexaggerated threat from terrorism.

David Anderson QC, a barrister and the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, has done just that by pointing out as many people are killed each year in the UK by hornets, wasps and bees, as they are by terrorists.

The average number of deaths annually from terrorism in the UK this century has been a miniscule five - the same number as those who die of bee stings each year.

In a report published Wednesday Anderson said that in the 21st century terrorism had been "an insignificant cause of mortality in the United Kingdom" - whilst in 2010 alone in England and Wales, 29 people had drowned in the bath.

Mr Anderson further undermined the government's fearmongering rhetoric by noting that no-one had even been injured by a terrorist in the UK for more than two years, since pro-Iraq war MP Stephen Timms was stabbed by Muslim radical Roshonara Choudhry, and that there hadn't been a successful Al-Qaeda attack anywhere in Europe throughout 2011.

By March 2011 arrests for terrorism had fallen to 141, the lowest level since 9/11, and there'd been only one serious terror conviction in a UK court, Anderson said. He also gave voice to the obvious, which is that the government's perpetual fearmongering about terrorism is sometimes “exaggerated for political or commercial purposes”, and that they could relax some anti-terror laws without endangering public safety.

Anderson's more rational assessment contrasts sharply with the outrageously fearmongering speech given earlier in the week by MI5 head Jonathan Evans. In the speech, Evans claimed that the 'Arab Spring' had provided a new breeding ground for British terrorists, alluded to the possibility of Iranian state-sponsored terror and the prospect of a dirty bomb attack, and said that if the Eurozone collapsed we could well see more Anders Breivik-style 'lone wolf' terrorists.

Evans' warnings were revealed to be practically useless - beyond perpetuating fear, which can be exploited by the elite - when he admitted that there was “no such thing as guaranteed security” for the upcoming Olympics and that the “dog you haven't seen may turn out to be the one that bites you".

It seems that in reality it's the wasp that stings you, that's statistically as likely as a terrorist to kill you.
In a disturbing example of the insane terror hysteria gripping the UK, an electronic cigarette machine yesterday caused chaos on an English motorway.

A coach driver's call to the police reporting a passenger seen "pouring liquid into a bag and causing it to smoke" resulted in the closing of a 27-mile stretch of the M6 motorway near Lichfield and the deployment of an estimated 200 emergency personnel - including the involvement of an armed response unit, two police forces, two fire brigades, and a military bomb disposal unit.

Decontamination tents were erected and the coach's 48 passengers made to file out of the vehicle with their hands in the air, before being surrounded and searched by armed police, and then made to sit on the motorway in rows in a taped off square.

It turned out Al Qaeda terrorists had not started targeting early morning budget intercity coaches, but that a passenger had in fact been using an 'e–cigarette' machine, which replicates the sensation of smoking using vapour.

Passengers were understandably angry about the way they had been treated. One passenger described how people had been terrified, with some crying and believing a bomb or an escaped prisoner to be on board the coach. Vermilion von Kangur described armed officers looking at passengers through the windows of the coach with binoculars and how she thought that if she "made a wrong move I could have been shot."

The motorway was closed for more than four hours, leading to long tailbacks.

The incident highlights the kind of totally disproportionate and hysterical response resulting from a climate of fear about terrorism - even though, as recently pointed out by the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, the UK terror threat has been massively overblown and as many people die from bee stings each year as from terror attacks.  

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