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| Britain |
| Holy security breach (again!) in Edinburgh |
| 2004-09-25 |
| At this point, it is getting kind of embarrassing. In the latest illustration of how security at Britain's public buildings is not as impenetrable as it might be, a reporter from a Scottish newspaper managed to walk unchallenged into Queen Elizabeth's residence in Edinburgh on Thursday, cleverly disguised as a construction worker. Once inside, he stood around for some 10 minutes in the State Rooms, not far from the queen's bedroom, before someone asked him what he was doing and he left the palace, said the newspaper, the Sunday Times Scotland. The queen, who does not spend much time at Holyroodhouse, was not in the palace at the time. But that is not the point. I should think that the Queen would be enraged by this. And we all know that there's nothing worse than a raging Queen! The point is that, as worried as Britain is about being a target for Al Qaeda terrorist attacks, intruders seem to have an unexpectedly easy time getting into places where they are not supposed to be. At least the trespasser, whose name has not been released, wasn't wearing a poorly fitting Batman outfit. That was what an advocate for divorced fathers had on when he spent the afternoon of Sept. 13 standing defiantly on a ledge at Buckingham Palace. And at least he wasn't wielding a pair of condoms filled with purple flour that he then lobbed at Prime Minister Tony Blair, as another divorced fathers' campaigner did in the House of Commons several months ago. Les Snowdon, editor of the Sunday Times Scotland, said that the paper mounted Thursday's undercover operation "to test security" following a number of high-profile breaches in London and Edinburgh. These wake-up calls had best be heeded or Britain is in for some serious attacks. "The Sunday Times undertook these investigations in advance of a visit by the queen to Scotland to open the new Scottish Parliament and in advance of a visit by Prince Charles this weekend," Snowdon said in a statement. "We have agreed to cooperate with the police, who are investigating how this breach of security was able to take place," he said. A spokeswoman for the Borders and Lothian police would say only, "There's been a report of an intruder at the palace, and we're investigating." In London, the British Parliament has been a particularly porous place of late. Last week, several men upset at legislative efforts to ban fox hunting rushed onto the House of Commons floor, only to be tackled to the ground by parliamentary officials. Then a reporter for the Sun, a tabloid newspaper that, like the Sunday Times Scotland, is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, used fake references to get a job and then smuggled in fake materials for a bomb. Earlier this month, reporters from the Scotsman and the Sun sneaked into the new Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh, one of them coming close to First Minister Jack McConnell and another claiming he was able to get onto the roof. Margo MacDonald, a member of the Scottish Parliament, told the Evening Standard that she hoped that officials would "get their act together" before the new Parliament building is officially opened Oct. 9. "I want to be assured that security officials at Holyrood Palace and the Parliament are taking advice from the police to make sure there are no gaps in the overall plan," she said. |
| Posted by:Zenster |
| #2 And we all know that there’s nothing worse than a raging Queen! [Insert appropriate Andrew Sullivan remark here] |
| Posted by: Pappy 2004-09-25 8:11:17 PM |
| #1 When I was there about a decade ago, any tourist could walk through the gate and stand in line at the door for a tour. But they didn't do that when the royals were there. What I remember most was a carpet in a ballroom -- a gift from the Shah of Iran. It was hand made and must have been 40 feet wide and 100 feet long. Don't underestimate Iranian patience. |
| Posted by: Tom 2004-09-25 4:12:48 PM |