Thursday, April 14, 2011

A false sense of security

We have just spent a slightly dull 20 minutes in the park at the end of the road following a security evacuation drill.

It was announced that a "specific security threat to the building" had been received and we were told to collect our belongings then given a three minute countdown to evacuation. That was the first clue that this might only be a drill as normally the policy is to leave anything behind and get out as quickly and safely as possible.

The second clue was that nobody was trying to stop traffic passing the place and the third that nobody was moving all the children on the Ipswich Town practice pitch which is right next door. If there was a chance of a bomb going off in a building with this much glass then I would have expected the innocents to be cleared away from the potential shrapnel zone. Still, it made a change from a fire drill I suppose.

We did have a genuine security evacuation about five years ago (having to leave for three hours while the Police searched every floor) but I don't think anything was found then. Given the current fuss over our leader and councillors (e.g. see post below) I wouldn't have been surprised if there had been an actual threat from a disgruntled council tax-payer.

Now, what was I doing before we were so rudely interrupted?