Coping in Britain: at home abroad.(daily threat of terrorism)

We asked our colleagues who publish Which?, the British counterpart of CONSUMER REPORTS, to describe what life is like when uncertainty takes the place of normalcy. The following are the thoughts of Alan Stevens, head of digital services at Which?.

Here in the U.K., we have lived through and lived with the threat of terrorist bombings by the Irish Republican Army for more than 30 years.

Living in London, I have been hit by flying glass from an explosion in Euston Station and felt my house shaken to its foundations by the Docklands bomb in 1996. After every such atrocity, fear is the initial reaction--pubs are emptier, cinema queues shorter, and it is much easier to get a table at popular city-centre restaurants.

Although people are wary of strangers, conversations seem to start more readily, albeit the most popular opening gambit on a bus or tube train is, "Does anyone know who that case belongs to?"

Bags are searched upon entering shops and offices. Letters and parcels are scrutinized. Buildings are evacuated on the slightest hint of anything suspicious. No one objects to these minor inconveniences, which in "sensitive" locations have remained permanently in place.

After a while, ...