London missile defense

"UK government uses civilian residents as human shields to protect their missile sites".

It'll make the terrorists think twice before blowing up those flats to eliminate the SAM batteries.

I mean, we DO have to protect Airstrip 1, after all.

... are in an ultralight air craft.

That's one advertisement you will not see during this year's olymics!

Want to know how I know you're full of shit?
The password is Nigel.

Dunno, an air burst explosion would almost always be preferable to an explosion directly on the ground. You'd have to have a pretty serious misfire situation to make things worse. There's also the deterrent factor, just having the visible defense will disenchant some who might think of piloting a small aircraft into the games.

And... it creates loads of jobs just making the missiles, installing them, maintaining them, covering them in the press....

Of course, if it convinces the terrorists to switch from a lightweight high-profile flying assault to a simple Oklahoma City style ground delivered Big Bomb, that could be a turn for the worse...

Hey, it's London, bombs go off all the time anyway, or at least they did 20 years ago when I used to travel there.

Eliminate them? Hell, jump across from the neighbours' place and STEAL THEM.

No no, for the Olympics they'll be using... wait for it... wait for it... Javelins! [wikipedia.org]

I'd be wrapped to have a missile array on my roof!

I know! It'd be the bomb! (...especially if manufactured on Friday).

... when Daleks invade. Again.

Yup. When one of those damn pirate drones [thepiratebay.se] flies in to steal the events from the BBC and NBC, they'll feel full SAM stopping power!

</uppermanagementpov>

I would agree. Cutting off the first letter of a quote 'he Ministry of Defence...' is something I would do while hurriedly posting quotes into MSN, not something an editor should do on a widely read website. Just ridiculous.

I remember Hunger Games when it was called Battle Royale.

For the past Olympic games, the hosting country just made do with fireworks....
To step up to actual missiles, now that is going to take a lot of effort to top for future hosting countries !!

They've got a decent education system. I wonder if they're possessive about that as well?

You wouldn't be. I have the misfortune to own a place with a great view over a convention center often used for various government meetings. Since two of my balconies overlook their terraces and hall windows from above, every fucking time they have some diminutive French, Italian or Russian head of state I have to remove my flowers and my telescope tripods from the balcony, keep the windows closed, get a badge from the security scum that infests the stairwell, endure their cheap cigarette smoke, bad breath, awful manners, atrocious looks and general incompetence.

The worst was when the wife of the first black president came over a few months ago, they even ordered us to remove our cars from the parking lot in front of the place. I don't get it, I heard she was really brave dodging bullets in Bosnia back in her days with the military.

So far we have been lucky not to have an expensive weapon system mounted on the rooftop, but I don't even want to contemplate what that would mean. And they never, ever compensate you for the trouble.

To sum it up, having to deal with a security implement in your building sucks major ass, and should be avoided at all costs and complained against loudly at every opportunity.

Good idea. I think the war would be cheaper, too.

That was the old Daleks... The new ones can fly! ;)

I take it you're Irish?

We'd need a metric fuck load more mod points, and a special mod just for "loose" and "lose".

It would never happen, though, because once readers started to clean up their grammar, it would just make the editors look even worse.

I stopped taking the Olympics seriously when McDonalds became a sponsor.

OK, that's not true, I stopped taking the Olympics seriously when Roy and HG got involved.

We don't need an exclusion zone to shut down Heathrow for the duration of the Olympics. We've got immigration officials to do that for us!