In response to Trident: That is very true. Even the idea that officialdom will be able to provide answers, truthfully or otherwise, is as facile as expecting someone who by their own admission does not possess all the info but searches for answers to then post quite often crazy ass theories which others will view.
Take a program on just last week. As per I was hopping channels during a five min break in the day and came across a bit where one of the poor buggers who'd been on one of the underground trains was talking to camera. She explained how she's got away unmarked and on arriving home, with the experience fresh in her mind, blogged it asap so as to not miss putting it down before shock set in or her memory became muddled. She stated how even while doing so theories were already on line and on looking back at her blog later and doing a search she saw how the info she typed had been used to form, as she put it, some outlandish idea.
One such theory had a power surge as the cause of the explosion and that the various bodies in charge of the underground had some how covered their tracks by claiming it was a bomb. Her story became included in another which, get this, had one thousand actors in various states of acting distress (inc bandages etc but all fake) gathered within minutes of said 'explosion' (according to one idea) so as to protect those in charge from their error (basically industrial manslaughter). Quite how one gathers 1000 actors within minutes of a cock uo was never explained.
One problem with wanting answers, which is in and of itself a human trait, is that the truth may not always be what people want to hear. It relies on those in charge somehow being better informed than you or I. Anyone who has worked in any government, civil service post or similar can quite easily tell you it's run by morons. Some might be skilled in very small and defined areas.
Examples: a story told to me by a MOD PC outside a MOD building near Whitehall. There was a suspect package and so the road was sealed off. Said PC manning a barrier/taped off area/whatever. A high ranking civilian staff MOD person marches up and shows their pass saying 'I need to get inside'. So the PC directs them to an entrance at the rear of the building to which access was clear and security had opened up for the emergency. The civvy says 'I've never been that way where is it? and needs to be directed around (go to corner, turn, go to next, turn, arrive at back door). The PC says 'but he'd worked there for over 10 years Steve and yet had never used any other entrance, not knew the way around the block to the back door'. The same civvy was a military planner. Good at that (I presume) but ****e at walking around the block.
Another: I am manning a barrier myself on another similar occasion and this time it's a woman and she says 'I'm level 6 and need to get through'. I replies 'madam I have no idea what that means but I'll take a stab and guess it doesn't mean you're bomb proof'. She goes read, clocks my shoulder number (ha ha) and marches off.
Another: same situation different location. Bloke marches under said barrier and claims to be in charge of these sort of things at the main London Transport building so I reply 'well you didn't learn much on the course' while walking him back. These are the same again that you'll be relying on to work their way down the list of cock-ups to find out what went wrong when they can't find back doors to buildings.
These same wonderfully paid, apparently highly intelligent people will be planners, safety officers and more.
<message edited by Mobster on 12 May 2008 19:16>