Am I alone in thinking this was just some pissed up navvy and not really a potential terrorist outrage.
Look at the evidence - a silver Merc (the chosen wheels of half successful paddy builder) containing petrol canister (no doubt for a Jenny), gas bottles and nails. Sounds to me like he was loaded up to replenish a job, got wasted in a boozer, stacked it and buggered off.
If you want to plant a car bomb, you don't crash it first, making it obvious. Also, petrol is hardly in the same league as Semtex or fertiliser based explosives. Plus the nails would tend to be attached to the "bomb" if they were for maiming purposes.
This wouldn't be El Gordo trying to show how safe the country has now become thanks to his unwanted and ongoing tenure at No. 10, would it?