Pretty much everyone in Britain received wonderful blog-fodder through the letter box this morning. In response to the growing, all too tangible, terrorist threat, our ever-caring government has produced a booklet to save us all from the forthcoming apocalypse. In ‘Preparing For Emergencies‘ the authorities walk the fine line between keeping us all in the dark and scaring the hell out of the populus.

Flicking through it makes one wonder what their aim really is. Now, I may be cynical about politics in a lot of ways, but I’m sure the governments bottom line in this case really is the protection of its citizens. However, in what way does this achieve that?

“If a bomb goes off in your building, look for the safest way out.”

There no arguing with that, is there? Whatever way you look at it, they’ve clearly thought this thing through. But then, I ought to be careful in ridiculing even this apparently elementary information. It seems hard to believe in retrospect, but many people in the World Trade Center towers were told to return to their desks. However much the advice within seems obvious, the booklet does make you wonder. We’ve all seen films like ‘Independence Day’ that show cityscapes in the aftermath of massive destruction, and it’s sobering to imagine my own street and neighbourhood like that. It’s far from impossible, if we are to believe the latest intelligence reports. A clue, perhaps, to the booklet’s true purpose lies in the section entitled ‘How to fuel the atmosphere of fear and racial tension by spying on the suspicious looking foreign people living down the road’. Ok, so perhaps that’s not the exact wording.

Well, blogs are supposed to be a chronicle of the blogger’s thoughts, and the above is certainly playing on my mind quite considerably at the moment. However, it’s not my intention to inject too great a degree of morbidity and doom into this post. Onwards to lighter topics, but one more thing first. Take a look at this self-satisfied git. Liam DonaldsonThis man is Liam Donalson, Chief Medical Officer. It’s hard to believe they couldn’t have found a better photo of him, which leaves us with the disturbing thought that perhaps this is a good photo of him. Either way, I hope he prepares for international terrorism better than he smiles.

In the interests of well and truly changing the subject, hands up if you’ve heard of Rob Bryden? A few of you, I see, but not nearly enough. Everyone should have heard of him, or at least of his genius creation ‘Keith Barrett’. Keith is the main (in fact, only) character in the darkly comic ‘Marion and Geoff‘. I wonder if it has reached US television? If you’re American, and reading this, then let me know. There is a reason for me suddenly saying this, as I just watched him in action in his latest project, ‘The Keith Barrett Show’. Well worth seeing, if you get the chance.

While I’m (sort of) on the subject, how fantastic is the Internet Movie Database? It solves any number of niggling worries and disputes. Though I am a big fan, my friends feel it has a lot to answer for. I get rather obsessed with working out where exactly I know actors from as well as what other films of theirs I may, or may not, or perhaps should, have seen. I’ve developed the rather irritating habit of pausing movies whilst I cross reference different entries to find out exactly who played ‘man on bus’ in the opening credits, and whether character X’s mother is the same actor who worked behind the bar in that other film. You know, the one with that person from the advert with the annoying music.

For some reason, they just don’t seem to care. Inexplicable.