You might have noticed that our city has experienced a ‘little’ problem with a nerve agent attack on two of our citizens. Their house is up the road and round the corner from me and I have seen the gentleman in question around and probably said “Good morning” when we passed each other.
As well as cordoning off areas of the city – notably the main route from Central Carpark to the town centre and cathedral, which is also the route from Sainsburys to the market – there is also a cordon round our roads. This is generally looked after by nice Welsh police during the day. They are mostly there to protect us from the press. I noticed one day that they were escorting some press down the road and the next day one of the policemen was putting tape by the alleyway into the bottom of the road. I showed him where the other entrance was and later took them a cup of tea. I have seen some of the press being sent away since then, too. Can’t imagine why they bother – there is nothing to see!
Due to the recent snow it has been a very cold job for the police – especially as they have 12 – 14 hour shifts! I gather that people at the top of the road (where they mostly are) have been giving them cups of tea and someone made them lunch on Sunday. We have different police overnight and on Saturday we must have had people from the Met. By Sunday morning we had this:
Providing extra security!??
I heard one of the policemen in charge of the investigation saying on the radio that the people of our city were being very stoic. What other choice do we have but to live with the town as it is – parts cordoned off and guarded by police from various forces? The press have cameras pointing at nothing – must be very boring for them too. We also have to put up with regular visits from very noisy (press) helicopters, who hover overhead.
So? Life continues. We put up with detours to get to where we want to go; press around – they seem to have (temporarily?) stopped asking stupid questions; our city mentioned in most news bulletins; much reduced footfall (a problem for some shops); some shops closed off; wondering if the victims are improving at all. We chat to the police – especially “our” nice Welsh ones and admire the snowman. One makes the best of it and hopes our lovely quiet city will return to normal fairly soon, although we have been told it might take a while yet (weeks, possibly months) as it is “a crime scene”…….