Again, if someone reports vapour coming from someone's bag and reports it as a genuine concern, what do you expect the authorities to do? If there is a genuine threat, you don't ask a passenger to start checking out the suspect, answering questions while on the phone. Smoke/vapour was reported coming from the bags during the failed attacks on 21st July 2005 if you recall, so if something similar is being reported, what do you expect them to do?

It's similar to the overkill at airports. I've been on a flight where a lad joked to the cabin crew, "got a bomb in me bag, me." We then spent 2 hours parked up while he was arrested and his bags removed. The likelihood of him actually having a bomb is almost zero, but the threat is taken seriously. It has to be. Mentioned a bomb at the airport and you're in trouble. Mention one on a 999 call and the police will respond accordingly.

And can I point out the bleedin' obvious that the authorities are on a high state of alert and will be until at least 13th August. No, it's not ideal and it's an inconvenience but any report of such a threat has to be taken seriously. And if you've got a suggestion to improve their operational response, I'm sure they'd welcome your experienced advice.

Like I said, if they'd performed some sort of assessment on the initial phone call and decided there was no threat, only for the bus to explode, or for the suspect to travel to London and explode a bomb elsewhere, heads would roll.

As I recall it was you who posed me a question, not the police. If you don't want to know my opinion, then don't ask, you ignorant sarcastic plank.



But that is a proposition of the utmost stupidity. I did not say they should have decided there "was no threat". It is banal to state that [isome[/i response of [isome[/i sort was required. It is absurd for you to even suggest that any assessment there "was no threat" could possibly have been made. It does not help for you to set up such a ridiculous straw man for yourself to then knock down.

You understand very well my point that if this was the reaction every time such a call was received then the country would grind to a halt, and even just that one single reason clearly demonstrates, if not to you, why the response was completely OTT and absurd. Nor, if the man HAD had a bomb, would the chosen course of response have done anything to stop him detonating it, a point which you totally ignore.

He could've actually been in the process of making it as the bus was going down the M6. Perhaps he was running late?

This is where my plan to send the nearest police car to stop the bus and say to the guy, "Excuse me sir, can I have a look in your smoking bag"? would have come into its own.

Wow. That's the third your muddled effort has prompted. Why on earth "thank god"? Since he did not have a bomb, then surely the way they handled it turns out to be irrelevant, as he was never going to harm anybody anyway (unless you fear passive vapour).

If he HAD had a bomb, can you please tell me what it was that the police did which improved the chances of the passengers, and reduced, in any way at all, the chances of the bomb being detonated? There may be something I have missed.

Let's leave it there. I have a rule: if there are more than 40 quotes in a post it's time to walk away.

Everyones an expert in hindsight, hats off to the police for responding even though it was an electronic cig, could have been something else.

I went on holiday in 2009 and was in the airport toilets as I was pretty nervous, I looked under a cubicle door to see if anyone was in and there was a fellow with his feet the wrong way messing with a bag, he opened the door and left and I went in, he was Asian and when I went into the toilet he had left an empty Robinsons orange bottle in there which had melted around the rim quite bad, I thought it was a bit weird.

He must have left it in there as I'd been in that cubicle 2mins before I came back.

He was travelling alone and looked very nervous and was messing about with his laptop and bag.

I told security about him and nothing was done, nothing happened as about 5 minutes later his wife and kids joined him which sort of eased my mind as I was ready to throw him off the plane, nothing happened and me and the mrs had a lovely holiday in Cuba and the bloke and his family were in our hotel, me and the mrs just joked about it after.

I won't admit to being parnoid even though nothing happened, just vigilant.

Better safe than sorry.

That's correct. Can't count. What of it?