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A sobering thought

Depressing day following the events in Manchester last night. It is struck me for sometime that a music event or a football match at the end of the event are an obvious target for those depraved enough to want to hurt innocent people.

I wonder if our club and the TVP need to give some serious thought to this issue. A local alienated lad trying to find a purpose could do huge damage with a hired van driven up Hillbottom Road at 4.55 on a Saturday afternoon. Not entirely clear how he would be stopped.

Comments

  • Stupid comment Dev at this sad time for Manchester and the country as a whole.

    Whilst the police have certain deficiencies (as we all do) I am confident that TVP have "given some serious thought" to the liklehood of terrorist activity at sporting and other events. Quite honestly they don't need you to advise/remind them.

  • Any excuse to start a new thread on the Gasroom!

  • I have Devc down to be ignored but he keeps coming up on chats. I have largely ignored his posts but this one is a step too far. How do I stop seeing his posts?

  • I don't have any problem with this thread, it seems a rational response to an awful situation. No one is being disrespected by considering how such terrible scenes may possibly be avoided in the future.

    Luckily we aren't high profile enough to be at significant risk of this kind of thing. But I am sure TVP and the club have looked at the associated risks before, and will look at them again now in the light of last nights events. But @devc is right that it seems extremely challenging for the Police and others to stop those intending harm in crowded public spaces.

  • Listening to the radio, reading Twitter and seeing comments on various websites it dawns on me two things. One, people no longer seem capable of having inner thoughts. Two, there is a peverse, mawkish competition between people who want to type (what they see as) meaningful words that shows how deep and caring they are 'hug your children everyone', 'every day is precious', 'I am praying today' etc etc. Trouble is most of this now comes across as a copy and paste for every shit thing that happens.

  • We live in a free country...there is no real way to police every gathering or make every public event completely safe from loonies. Thanks for your concern @DevC

  • When i saw thread title i thought we were on about Tony Adams again.

  • Agreed @TheAndyGrahamFanClub. The 'most thoughtful response competition' is a contest that needs abandoning. Sky news love it

  • @Wheresthechips said:
    Agreed TheAndyGrahamFanClub. The 'most thoughtful response competition' is a contest that needs abandoning. Sky news love it

    Thirded, even if it is well meaning, it comes across as completely forced

  • Nothing wrong with people trying to be nice.

  • @chris. I understand, and agree with, your sentiment but strongly agree with @TheAndyGrahamFanClub . So much of what is being said and "reported" today has nothing to do with the event or adds nothing to our understanding of it. The essential awfulness of the event speaks for itself and needs no help from platitudes and truisms. It feels mawkish and self-pitying. Naturally, we identify with those directly affected and share a common desire to avoid further such events. There is no need for a public competition in grief or empathy.

    As a test, I suggest that when one hears a statement from, for example, a public figure on the matter, one considers the substance of their utterance and asks oneself whether it is conceivable that they would express the opposite view. If it is not, then there is really no purpose or value in making the statement.

  • @TheAndyGrahamFanClub spot on.

    Why would anyone feel the need to post 'so sad' on Facebook? Why would 30-odd people 'like' that status (two with a crying emoji)? Why did someone feel the need to tell me 'I saw Take That in there' as if that was in any way relevant.

    As you say, copy and paste shit.

  • @woodlands said:
    I have Devc down to be ignored but he keeps coming up on chats. I have largely ignored his posts but this one is a step too far. How do I stop seeing his posts?

    I don't think ignore works when someone creates a thread. Which Dev does like to do. And this one is a real head shaker on so many levels.

  • Because different people cope with things in different ways. It doesn't hurt anyone, does it?

    It might not be meaningful to you, fine, but to some people it is. It's not what I choose to do but that doesn't mean my approach is better. I didn't go to the vigil today in Manchester but I know people who did and it was apparently very moving.

  • The news channels (well all media for that matter) just seem to think it's relevant to sit there and read tweets etc. Here's one from Michael in Argyle 'I have a daughter, so very sad', Mary in Southend 'This really is a terrible thing and these children are in my prayers', Fred from East London 'Taken far too soon, a really terrible time and my thoughts are with their loved ones at this moment'. It's like reading the rejected pile from the Hallmark Cards product team. Its terrible. Its beyond terrible. We all know its terrible. Don't contrive some shite so you can get a hard on by seeing it 'liked' or read out on TV or radio.

  • Everything has to be responded to nowadays...and we all have to know what everyone thinks. And publically. Nationally it's not unlike Queenie having to come out when the Tabloid Queen of Holidays died because the great British public demanded she cry in front of them rather than remain with her family. The media demand people in the public eye say something or else...and it's cheaper to read out tweets from famous people than it is to get an interview with them. It's lazy...but we get the meeeja we want.
    When news started saying: 'This is what Gary from Grimsby thinks of the Budget...' I knew we were doomed. (For the record I don't care what Gary thought...)

  • It would be more entertaining if the news channels were allowed to editorialise what the public thought. It would be at least entertaining if when Gary from Grimsby said the economy would be better after Brexit as all the Asians had taken the jobs round his way* the news reader could simply say 'what a dick'.

    *This was actually what someone said on the news the day after the Brexit vote and not a throw away line.

  • I do hope that wasn't on the BBC AGFC.

  • Surely one of the media pleasures of any election/referendum is finding idiots who either have no idea what they are voting for/what voting is/what an election is...or have simplistic views that they are willing to bark like a seal into a microphone.

  • Actually I find those people rather depressing.

  • they are the Silent Majority the populists keep telling us about @MindlessDrugHoover sadly often not silent enough. I suppose campaigning on behalf of the Thick Majority would sound less worthy.

  • @MindlessDrugHoover I would keep off Twitter at the moment then. Despite their lack of opposable thumbs their are plenty putting in the overtime sharing their thoughts on the current state of play and who is to blame.

  • @Wendoverman they have in spades this time. "Strong and stable... strong and stable... blah, blah, blah."

    Clueless

  • @bookertease I take your point; but it isn't really clueless as it has been carefully thought out and is considered the best way to win, and will probably work - against the "coalition of chaos", etc...

  • @Cyclops yes I know. But i thought "simplistic views that they are willing to bark like a seal into a microphone" fitted perfectly with that ludicrous (and post u-turn especially) amusingly inaccurate sound bite. Depressing.

  • I think one party is so convinced they will win they really don't give a toss. I know they are often pulling interviewees out of news programmes at short notice when there is no chance to replace them. I expect the rationale is...do they really need to be asked difficult questions and risk getting mired down when they can just sit back and wait for victory.

  • Brexit, Trump. Next please.

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