There's probably no terrorist
Now stop worrying and enjoy your life
Have you seen the paranoia posters yet? In the foreground bin overflows with empty chemical containers – in the background, a woman is walking her child in a pushchair. The caption reads: “These chemicals won’t be used in a bomb because a neighbour reported the dumped containers to the Anti Terrorist Hotline.”
In the second, a street full of women and children and a token, flat hatted, bloke are happily chatting away, oblivious to the CCTV camera watching in the background. The caption tells us that: “A bomb won’t go off here because weeks before a shopper reported someone studying the CCTV cameras”
The strapline for both posters is “Don’t rely on others. If you suspect it, report it.”
It’s probably going a bit far to start phoning 0800 789 321 to report that some irresponsible twonk is putting up posters designed to raise paranoia and fear to no good end. If nothing else, that would mean the anti terrorist types have your phone number.
Obviously, contacting to your MP is a boring, but useful step in pushing back against deliberate attempts to intensify a climate of fear, but once you’ve done that, you can always resort to ridicule. So, check out James Holden’s fabulous poster generator and make your own version. If you come up with a particularly good one, post the results in the flickr group that’s been set up for the purpose.
If you’re feeling ambitious, the Met, bless them, have provided everything you need to make more comprehensive remixes. Just download the original PDFs and go to town with Illustrator. That Flickr pool is waiting for your contributions.