Woke at 6am this morning to a towering column of smoke from the burning SONY warehouse by the M25. I knew it was there because just before midnight my family thoughtfully told me (just as I was on the verge of sleep.....!) There it was etched against the clear night sky with signs of a red glow in the billowing column.
Here we are more than 10 hours later and the column of jet black smoke is still rising. I guess they will get there and stop it before tea time...... It is amazing how much soot a pile of plastic gizmo's can pollute the air with. SONY goods will be gold dust for a while, though there may be some on the 'alternative' market........
So this is where soft policing, soft education/government etc etc and too much paperwork has got us.
And those who predicted trouble after the Tottenham shooting were put down as scaremongering, just as the Government - ably assisted by the NPAS team - have dismissed the potential threat to public order from permanently removing helicopters from the resources. Now is a time when even those retired EC135T1's might just fill a gap [in daylight] a cheap resource like the Green Goddess fire engines that no-one wanted and would ever need.
Now is a time for street policing not the 'war games' of the leaders with a BA [Hons] in Egyptology.
The biggest UK police force ran out of helicopters yesterday and had to call in others, next year there will be no 'others' to call in.
The world must be laughing.