I have been rocked to my foundations at the revelation that the police “fear an ISIS attack tonight”. According to the Daily Express, a bunch of islamic fascists have targeted the final of the X Factor. I cannot comment on the content of the show, although I have seen a brief clip of a middle aged rapper called Honey G. Her performance was absolutely dire, which I am told is a real bonus on the X Factor, but whether this is worthy of a terrorist attack is a debatable issue.
The Express, as ever, is somewhat short on detail. “ANTI-TERROR police are reportedly on stand-by at Wembley’s SSE Arena over fears of an ISIS attack,” shrieks the paper. “Met Police are said to have put special measures in place, including airport-style security and rigorous bag searches.” Hmm. Like at many events these days, like large pop concerts.The paper then quotes the security specialist Will Geddes who said: “There will certainly be response capabilities stood by should it be necessary. There is a good chance there will be a deployment. But they may not be visible. That will come down to what the risk assessment tells them on the day. With an event like this one has to be concerned. You can’t discount anything these days, sadly. We know the modern day terrorist wants to garner as much publicity as they can.” I’m worried now! And finally, we learn that the Metropolitan Police is on “top security alert” this weekend.
I would imagine that “ANTI TERROR police are reportedly on stand by” because the current threat level of international terrorism for the UK is “severe”, which means an attack is “highly likely”. If the authorities themselves are more than a bit concerned about the security threat, I doubt very much that the head of Scotland Yard has not made at least some plans to deal with any issues that might arise at the final of the X Factor. But the police will no more, or no less, fear an ISIS attack at the X Factor final as they will anywhere else in London and the rest of the UK for that matter. You don’t need “security sources”, as the Express suggests. You just need a level of understanding of the bleeding obvious.
The good news at the foot of the article is that the Express has “contacted an X Factor spokesperson for comment”. I’ll look forward to hearing that one, then.
