more from the red zone

Way back in 1996 after the IRA bomb, the whole of Manchester city centre was cordoned off in a circle whose epicentre was the blast point as teams of civil engineers and such worked their way outward clearing up and checking for structural damage. People commuting to work in the city centre were marshaled into several points around the rim of the circle, where they left their cars, buses etc. and walked in to work.

So also in the red zone. The secured area is smaller this time, and it’s more of a rough semicircle stretching to the South and West, roughly following the course of the Mancunian way flyover as it bends across the southern approaches to the city centre. It’s at this point that people are being told to get off the bus and walk. The East and North of the city is covered by a screen of armed police at transport intersections, including the metro stops in the city centre.

The measures taken to protect the Labour party against a terrorist attack subject the people of Manchester to an experience that resembled the aftermath of the last terrorist attack in the city. It’s an interesting slant on the debates about whether the PM’s policies are responsible for generating his own terrorism. In fact, the Prime Minister is the epicentre of his own explosion. Mancunians are subject to the aftermath of the Blair bomb.