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Comment by constantius | Hacker News Reader

> based on myth and dramatisation

> We have had generations of terror threats to and attacks on our railway system, trains, railway stations

I think your take might be based on myth and dramatisation too, as well as a misunderstanding of what the purpose of surveillance is (it's not about protecting children, or trains).

And agree with sibling about Ireland: the Troubles would have been solved by getting the hell out.

I invite you to check how the English government is reacting to independentist movements in Scotland and Ireland post-Brexit if you think they're happy to let people be.

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> I think your take might be based on myth and dramatisation too,

You are arguing that terrorist attacks on public transport in the UK are mythical or dramatised?

> I invite you to check how the English government is reacting to independentist movements in Scotland and Ireland post-Brexit if you think they're happy to let people be.

This is just a very weird sentence to read; surprised it wasn't weird to write.

> You are arguing that terrorist attacks on public transport in the UK are mythical or dramatised?

What kind of question is that? Did I ask you if you're calling cameras in the UK mythical?

Same as what you said about London, I'm arguing you're dramatising the dire threat of terrorism on the good people sitting in the tube.

In a thread where we're discussing the systematically verified risks of a slippery slope of surveillance measures and the introduction of extremely invasive surveillance in the tube, clutching your pearls about the mean terrorists threatening the public transports for literal generations is a ridiculous exaggeration that carries the same value as "think of the children". How are cameras going to protect you? Do you think they see people's intentions? Even the police didn't use the terrorism excuse for this.

Sorry for the tone, but this wilful misunderstanding of my comments and your statement about the Irish being to blame for the Troubles make it difficult to engage in a gentlemanly manner.

> I'm arguing you're dramatising the dire threat of terrorism on the good people sitting in the tube.

The threat has indeed been dire, and quite recently; the last jihadist bombing on the tube was less than ten years ago.

> Sorry for the tone,

I think you are not.

> your statement about the Irish being to blame for the Troubles

I did not say this.

Those of us who lived in London in the 90s very actively remember the IRA bombs and the relatively regular having to shelter in place, evacuate etc.

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