Trains, planes and terrorism

We woke up this morning to the beeping of my mobile phone and a text from mum who was due to fly down from Newcastle and spend the weekend with us. “Have you seen the news?” As it was 7:15am and I had only just woken up and didn’t want to clamber out of bed just yet, I pulled up BBC news on my mobile phone (isn’t technology great?) She wouldn’t have texted so early if it hadn’t been something big, and as I’m sure everyone knows by now, it’s big. Twenty-one young British muslims arrested in and around London suspected of plotting what would have been the worlds biggest ever terrorist attack. According to the news up to 20 aircraft could have been simultaneously blown up while in mid-flight over the Atlantic between the UK and the USA.

Cait and I spent fifteen minutes or so watching Sky news and Fox news before I set off for work. Having lived the transatlantic lifestyle for the last 8 years and Cait having been so close when the 7/7 attacks happened in London last year, these things hit pretty close to home. It makes you wonder what kind of world we live in when 21 young men, considerably younger than me, are willing to kill themselves and hundreds of innocent people in such a calculated and horrific way.

As we watched events unfold throughout the day it became clear that mum’s flight wasn’t going to get out. In fact, all Easyjet flights into London airports were cancelled today so this afternoon was spent frantically trying to book her a train ticket. In the end we managed it and although it was a little more expensive than the flight, and 2 hours longer, mum will now arrive at lunchtime tomorrow and leave Sunday evening. Easyjet have also said she will get a full refund – which anyone who watches the TV show Airline will tell you is a feat in itself.

So it looks like for the next few days, maybe weeks, no carry-on luggage will be allowed on any flight and that includes any liquids such as drinks, hair gel, contact lens solution etc. Even babies’ milk must be tested by the parents in front of the security personnel at the airport. It would seem we’ve all had a stark reminder that this “war on terror” continues with no end in sight and according to Fox News we should all be very afraid. I, for one, will sleep even sounder tonight than I did last night knowing that this plot was thwarted. Flying is once again, that bit safer. Somewhere tonight, twenty-one dangerously misguided boys are sitting in police cells wondering where it all went wrong.

And what of yesterday’s news? That seems to have dropped of the radar today. But while many Brits lose sleep tonight over something that almost happened, thousands of innocent children and families in the Middle East are losing sleep, and maybe their lives, over something that is happening. As I said, what a world.