Wednesday 7 January 2009

Norman Baker Lead Story in the Echo


The lead story on the front page of today's Northern Echo is Lib Dem transport spokesman Norman Baker's revelation that "Thousands of train spotters are being quizzed as potential terrorists at railway stations across the region." The on-line story is here. It seems that over 13,000 train spotters (I didn't know there were so many!) have been questioned in North East railway stations in a recent twelve month period.


It's great to have the Lib Dems as the main story in our local paper. The last time was a couple of months ago when I described something as "ludicrous" in a conversation with a journalist. The next day the headline screamed "Ludicrous" as I strolled past my local paper shop.


Norman says the figures are a "worrying sign that we are sliding towards a police state".


Of course, train spotters will soon be banned from railway stations on the East Coast Mainline anyway once National Express have installed barriers at all the stations. Then the only people allowed on the platform will be people with tickets to travel.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hi mike
just as a VERY simple point I would ask you how you would feel if anything untoward were to happen to any of our fine young fighting men whilst travelling to and from their homes and military bases?
As the proud father of one such young man surely you would see the need for a safe and secure rail network that he might travel as safely as possible in this, his home country.
As a further point i feel the need to emphasise the proximity of our own rail station to the largest army training facility n the country; namely Catterick Infantry Training Centre, and would ask if the reaction to the unspeakable would be "there should be better security" or similar.
Having been stopped and searched on more than one instance (I work on the station and am therefore at a greater likelihood of being the 1 in 5 or whatever ratio is applied on the day) I have no problems with stop and search powers ....
IF YOU HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE, THEN IT MUST FOLLOW THAT YOU HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR
Train spotters are not being targeted in any way, they are simply there and therefore must accept that they are not exempt from those matters which the rest of the population are subjected to...
IF YOU AREN'T HAPPY THEN DON'TGO ONTO RAILWAY PROPERTY!
The other point that has been made in the press is that the train spotters are doing no wrong.....
true, the majority are doing no wrong, however, in order to obtain an elusive photograph, some of their number think that it is ok to enter areas of the railway station which are clearly marked as restricted and apply their own judgement as to whether they are justified, usually arguing that they are doing no harm, so therefore should be allowed to flout the restrictions applied to everyone else.
JUST WHO GIVES THEM THE RIGHT TO DECIDE THAT THEY CAN IGNORE SIGNS TELLING THEM THAT THEY AREN'T SUPPOSED TO PASS?
Just to finish up, may I remind you that very few terrorists would attack a transport facility without first checking the opportunities to hide their presence in order to get away with whatever attrocity they were carrying out.




(password still on strike mike so i'll sign off as ian chandler)