Terrorism doesn’t strike in East Dulwich
I was intending to do a bit of almost-live blogging about this breaking news yesterday, but unfortunately my broadband went down about 5.30pm and has only just returned, albeit in a rather unreliable state (expect a rant about Virgin Media shortly). So, 21 hours late…
High drama in East Dulwich this yesterday afternoon, as a suspect device was discovered at the police station on Lordship Lane. The ‘Lane was closed at about 4.30pm from the Bishop pub up to the police station as specialist officers prodded it with sticks carried out a detailed examination.
I was on my way home from the shops at the time and, rather than run screaming in the opposite direction, I grabbed my trusty D80 and headed heroically straight towards the police cordon, with no thought for my own personal safety.
Fortunately (or unfortunately from the point of view of writing an interesting post and getting dramatic pictures) it seems to have been a false alarm. At this stage it’s not clear if the security alert was caused by:
- a PCSO mistaking their own packed lunch for a bomb,
- an over-priced nik-nak falling from a yummy mummy’s Bugaboo,
- or Gordon Brown desperately trying to justify his unjustifiable 42 days detention plan by making anonymous bomb threats in disloyal MPs’ constituencies (not very likely, as my MP is Tessa ‘As New Labour as it Gets’ Jowell).
Hi there, regarding you broadband being down It may not have been Virgin Media’s fault. It may have been due to the aftermath of the Forest Hill EDF substation fire on Sunday night. The power outage affected most of Forest Hill, Sydenham and Beckenham. Although your home may not have been affected (if you live near the bottom of Lordship Lane), the Virgin Media hub site in Crystal Palace Road, where the Broadband transmission equipment is, certainly was. Hope this helps. Kind regards, Simon.
Hi Simon, thanks for the comment. I’d heard about the fire, but didn’t think to connect the two (there was no mention of an outage on VM’s service status page). I’m at the Goose Green end, so if the Crystal Palace Rd hub was out of action, that would certainly explain it. For all VM’s faults – traffic management, Phorm – I’ve generally found their broadband rock solid.
Thanks again for taking the time to clear that one up.