Although the authorities do use these these events to place more control over us they are real terrorist incidents which, but for a little luck, could have worse.
From all accounts it seems that these were amateur in the extreme ? cars full of petrol and gas cylinders with a mobile ?phone connected to a bulb filament as the igniter (in the case of the London ?attacks?). Who knows, perhaps the Glasgow attack was a similar weapon and their mum called them up to ask what time they would be home for their tea while they were on the way?
I?m not an expert but I know that it is extremely difficult to ignite petrol/gas vapour in an enclosed space. I know that gas cylinders don?t explode immediately in fires ? it take a great deal of heat and then they are designed to ?vent? rather than explode. If petrol and gas cylinders were so explosive they wouldn?t be allowed to be carted around the country every day.
So it seems to me that this was an amateur attack ? no doubt we should be worried about it. What drives these people to hate us so much that they are prepared to risk their lives to cause chaos and loss of life for their cause? We need to look at their backgrounds and see what the cause was, who incited them to hatred.
However, I think we have to be extremely careful not to overreact. We are being told that this was an attack by Al Qu'ida and that fact will surely lead to greater restrictions on our lives. Inspired by Al Qu'ida perhaps but organised and funded by them ? no. For surely Al Qu'ida would know that you would need explosives to detonate a car full of petrol and gas cylinders ? and probably have access to it.