[HPFGU-OTChatter] Talking of losing perspective ....

[Kathryn]

The thing is Kathryn, telling the difference between a joke or other
obvious non-threat, and a real threat can be *very* difficult.
 

But when the threat in question is a caption in a high school year book I
think it actually is fairly obvious, especially since we're not even talking
about an outright threat but rather a parody of hat rather odd (well it
seems that way to me as a UK citizen, but then yearbooks are pretty odd to
me) tradition of giving kids in a graduating class "most Likely ..." titles

 

And people should be aware that in the UK, SO14 investigates threats
against Her Majesty and other members of the Royal family, just asintensely as the Secret Service investigates threats against the US
President. There are probably less threats - but they get taken very
seriously.




But again I think they would have to be actual threats directed towards the
Royal Family rather than one liners in a yearbook.


 
 I don't know who the
third man is - there was one very active bodyguard, Superintendent
Colin Trimming, but he's off to the right of that photo putting
himself between the Prince and the assailant - who, luckily, was
firing blanks.
 


And that's another big difference between UK Special Branch bodyguards and
the Secret Service actually (totally on a tangent). The US Secret Service
has a big 'intimidation' factor to their protection plan - lots of imposing
men in suits and sunglasses. Special Branch tends to work more on the
principle that if someone is shooting at your protectee you're probably
screwed anyway and focus a lot more on makinf sure precautions are in place
to try and make sure no threats can get anywhere near him/her. Both outlooks
have the problem that it's almost impossible to stop a lone nut with a gun,
especially if they're not all that bothered about their own survival.

K

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