The GOS lifted this whinge from Zyra's website - and yes, we did ask him first. His wonderfully eclectic site has over a thousand pages on every topic under the sun, from computer viruses to chocolate, from Yorkshire to Venus, from tyres to transvestites. Have a look at his categories page - hours of fascinating browsing!
"On a recent trip by rail I had to wait an hour at Nottingham (UK), and I was in the train station waiting room and noticed something odd about it. What was odd was that there was litter and rubbish all strewn about all over the place. Why was this? People who don't know better and drop rubbish about without regard for the feelings of others? Easy to assume that, but NO, it wasn't. The reason why there was so much garbage all about was that there was NO RUBBISH BIN. So, I went to find out why there was no rubbish-bin, because be blowed if I'm going to be degraded in social habit and leave litter about just because of there not being a dustbin provided.
"But when I found the reason why there was no trash can I found it even more disturbing and annoying! There are no litter bins because of TERRORISM. The idea is, if there are any refuse disposal canisters, then terrorists will use them to hide BOMBS. So, there are no waste facilities, and we the public are expected to leave litter about.
"Well, let's think about this. Terrorists, regardless of what you think of their motives, aren't stupid. It wouldn't take much gumption to figure out how to hang a bomb off the back of one of the seats (don't tell them that - they'll ban seats too!), or to bring along a mop bucket with a bomb in it, disguised as an item waiting for the cleaner to come back. Or what about cunningly hiding the bomb under some of the rubbish that's lying about on the floor? Etc.
"So, who's made the decision to have no wastebins in the waiting room? Not the station manager? No, it's the GOVERNMENT. The government has decided that to combat terrorism we're going to have no wastepaper-baskets. And, if some fool phones up and claims to have put a bomb on the station, it is to be EVACUATED! So, looking back at history, what did we do in the Second World War about bombs? Evacuate the entire country? NO! We carried on life anyway and refused to look intimidated.
"So now let's see who's winning? Terrorists, obviously, as the government has given in to them. By allowing the quality of life to be diminished by them it has become a sucker to the terrorist cause. I'm sure they must be feeling really pleased at the trouble they've caused. Not merely to inconvenience people in their lives, but to actually diminish standards of life. What point is there in teaching children not to drop litter, when the government has made it law that litter MUST be dropped.
"Revolt is required here. Ignore terrorist threats, and ignore stupid laws too. Terrorists don't have atom bombs to kill us all. If we all ignore threats, how many do you suppose would die? The chance of you being killed by a bomb would be small. It would be better to risk the 10,000 to one chance of being killed by a bomb rather than suffer the humiliation of defeat by allowing social habits to be deteriorated and to admit they are having an effect on society.
"What's going on here, by the government, is a KNEE JERK REACTION. It's like - there's been a million to one health problem with the beef, so we'll ban the beef! KNEE JERK REACTION. Perhaps the word "JERK" here is not coincidental".
The GOS says: Saw some statistics in the newspaper the other day. Did you know that international terrorism is currently at its lowest ebb for 25 years? Perhaps it's because the terrorists know they've already won; they've successfully altered the way we live and the way we think, so why do they need to run risks trying to blow people up any more?
By the way, do you notice how we all call them "train stations" these days? In my youth there was no such thing as a train station - they were railway stations. God, it's great getting old. There are so many really important things to get worked up about.
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