It took the Secret Service 4 days to realize that shots had hit the White House

[Richard Hakluyt]

The level of security is shockingly high compared to the old days. Back in the 1970s any drunken fool could stroll down Downing Street any old time of day or night and exchange badinage with the copper outside number 10 

In general I don't think that the political classes should be protected any more than the general public. Clearly some allowances have to be made for people like the PM who are vulnerable to the attention of nutters.

[Agelastus]

Spencer Percival was one too many.

[Sheilbh]

We've had nothing remotely approaching the Presidential motorcade when he's on official business and I'd guess the president moves with quite a lot of security even when on holiday.

Thank God. I remember being in Rome during the aftermath of JPII's death and we had the motorcade of one President and two exes go past. It was preposterous. People were laughing at how long it went on for, it was like something from Monty Python when they extend a joke just a bit too far.

[mongers]

We've had nothing remotely approaching the Presidential motorcade when he's on official business and I'd guess the president moves with quite a lot of security even when on holiday.

Thank God. I remember being in Rome during the aftermath of JPII's death and we had the motorcade of one President and two exes go past. It was preposterous. People were laughing at how long it went on for, it was like something from Monty Python when they extend a joke just a bit too far.

Indeed. I've heard people talk like those are tourist attractions in their own right, something to behold.

I think I once encountered the motorcade of a British PM, somewhere out in Hertfordshire, I guess on the way to Checkers, it amounted to a couple of motorcycle cops out front, getting you to slow down/move over to allow the prime ministerial Jag and an accompanying Range Rover to pass. And this was before the IRA gave up, so it might have been Maggie or possible Major. 

[MadImmortalMan]

The President can seriously shut down a city when he's in town. It can be problematic.

[garbon]

The President can seriously shut down a city when he's in town. It can be problematic.

Tell me about it.

[Sheilbh]

We've had nothing remotely approaching the Presidential motorcade when he's on official business and I'd guess the president moves with quite a lot of security even when on holiday.

Thank God. I remember being in Rome during the aftermath of JPII's death and we had the motorcade of one President and two exes go past. It was preposterous. People were laughing at how long it went on for, it was like something from Monty Python when they extend a joke just a bit too far.

Indeed. I've heard people talk like those are tourist attractions in their own right, something to behold.

I think I once encountered the motorcade of a British PM, somewhere out in Hertfordshire, I guess on the way to Checkers, it amounted to a couple of motorcycle cops out front, getting you to slow down/move over to allow the prime ministerial Jag and an accompanying Range Rover to pass. And this was before the IRA gave up, so it might have been Maggie or possible Major.

And of course there's the pre-Troubles days with people like Alec Douglas-Home:

How Alec Douglas-Home foiled student kidnappers with beer
By Andrew Pierce12:01AM BST 14 Apr 2008

A bungled plot by Left-wing students to kidnap Alec Douglas-Home, the Conservative prime minister, has been revealed for the first time in the coded diaries of Lord Hailsham, the former Lord Chancellor.

The unpublished papers, some of which are written in a shorthand system that was translated by staff at GCHQ, disclose that the Prime Minister averted abduction by offering his would-be kidnappers beer.

He joked that if the students removed him from the political scene the Tories would win the general election, which was due in the autumn, with a landslide.
The incident is detailed in diaries that Lord Hailsham - who was Lord Chancellor in the Heath and Thatcher governments - requested remained closed during his lifetime.

He died in 2001 and they were given to the University of Cambridge's Churchill Archives Centre. They are now being published online by the Margaret Thatcher Foundation.

They cover Edward Heath's time as prime minister from 1970-74 and are believed to be the only ones in existence from any senior member of his Cabinet.

The diaries reveal Lord Hailsham's closeness to Mrs Thatcher and her often tempestuous relationship with Mr Heath, whom she replaced as Conservative leader in 1975.

But it is the story of the kidnap that never was that will intrigue political historians.

The diary entry for Jan 9, 1977 describes how Sir Alec related the tale to Lord Hailsham and other members of a shooting party at Birkhill in Scotland.

He wrote: "An odd story of the 1964 election never published. Alec (then Prime Minister) was staying with John and Priscilla Tweedsmuir, who had no room for Alec's private bodyguard. He went to the nearest town (Aberdeen?) and John & Priscilla left Alec for a time alone in the house. Knock at the door. Door answered by PM in person.

"Deputation of Left-wing students from Aberdeen University. Said they were going to kidnap Alec. He, 'I suppose you realise if you do, the Conservatives will win the election by 200 or 300.' He asked and received permission to pack a few things & was given 10 minutes grace. After that they were offered and accepted beer. John & Priscilla returned and the kidnap project abandoned. The bodyguard swore Alec to secrecy as his job would have been in peril."

The incident took place in April 1964, when the prime minister, who had just announced that there would be an election in October, appeared at the Scottish Unionist conference.

He encountered students from Aberdeen University, who asked him to sign a forfeit for charity in return for not kidnapping him. He signed, gave them £1, and assumed it was all in good fun.

After the conference he drove in heavy fog to nearby Potterton House, the home of his hosts John and Priscilla Tweedsmuir. Mr Tweedsmuir was the son of John Buchan, the author of The 39 Steps, and his wife was a Scottish minister.

Unknown to Sir Alec, the students tailed his car. They planned to contrive an accident, block the car, and take him to a house in Aberdeen for a few hours then release him.

But they lost their nerve and Sir Alec made it to Potterton House. A group of students walked to the house, rang the bell and, to their astonishment, Sir Alec opened it.

He was apparently alone. He let the students take photos and played for time until the Tweedsmuirs returned.

Chris Collins, the editor of MargaretThatcher.org, said: "The kidnap prank was one of the worst breaches of a prime minister's personal security in the 20th century, at least that we know of.

"If Home's assailants had been darker in purpose he would have died that night."

The Tories went on to lose the 1964 election, which was won by Harold Wilson's Labour Party.

He also apparently didn't want to ruin the students lives for a silly prank, so never made any complaint

[MadImmortalMan]

He also apparently didn't want to ruin the students lives for a silly prank, so never made any complaint

Respect for that. I bet they would all have their lives ruined today.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah. It reminds me of the recent story about the great Mary Beard:

Mary Beard reveals she befriended Twitter trolls following online abuse
Classicist says she wrote reference for one troll because she feared name-and-shame response would harm his job prospects
Hannah Ellis-Petersen
The Guardian, Wednesday 27 August 2014 19.58 BST

Academic and TV historian Mary Beard has disclosed her innovative approach to dealing with her vitriolic Twitter trolls – writing them a job reference.

The Cambridge University professor, one of the country's foremost classicists who has fought a very public battle about online etiquette after receiving a torrent of abuse on Twitter, said she has taken to befriending her vilifiers.

They include the university student Oliver Rawlings, whom she publicly named and shamed in July last year after he sent her an abusive message. Speaking in an interview with the New Yorker magazine, Beard revealed the pair had remained in touch after he took her to lunch to apologise for sending her a tweet that read: "You filthy old slut" followed by a derogatory comment about her genitalia.

Beard retweeted it to her 47,000 followers to out her abuser, but said she had now taken to writing job recommendations for Rawlings so he didn't suffer in the long term for "one moment of idiocy".

"He is going to find it hard to get a job, because as soon as you Google his name that is what comes up," she said. "And although he was a very silly, injudicious, and at that moment not very pleasant young guy, I don't actually think one tweet should ruin your job prospects."

She added: "In general, I am more concerned to be sure that people don't use the internet in this way (or don't do so again) than to seek 'punishment'."

Beard's tactic of naming-and-shaming also prompted Rawlings to make a public apology on his own Twitter account, writing: "I sincerely apologise for my trolling. I was wrong and very rude. Hope this can be forgotten and forgiven. I feel this had been a good lesson for me. Thanks 4 showing me the error of my ways."

The 59-year-old has been one of the most outspoken voices on trolls, condemning their behaviour as "vile playground bullying" and "generic, violent misogyny" after an appearance on BBC Question Time last year led to a torrent of vile sexual taunts and abuse directed at her on social media.

Beard told the New Yorker she had taken a similarly benevolent approach with another internet abuser who called her evil following her Question Time appearance. After an exchange of emails she discovered the troll was in fact upset about a problem with his healthcare. Beard then stepped in to lend assistance to him.

She said: "It took two minutes on Google to discover the reciprocal healthcare agreement, so I sent it to him. Now when I have a bit of internet trouble, I get an email from him saying: 'Mary, are you all right? I was worried about you.'"

Beard said she had also received an apology for another man who had doctored an image of her with genitalia on her face, who then revealed himself to be a married father of two. He had sent her a letter, she said, that described "how he should never have done it, in a way that was very eloquent".

Describing her constructive approach, Beard said she did not simply want to be perceived as a "long-suffering female parent" scolding her errant teenager, adding: "If being a decent soul is being maternal, then fine. I'll call it human."

A 2013 report from the organisation Working to Halt Abuse Online revealed that 72.5% of people who reported being abused on the internet in the last decade have been female. Speaking to the Guardian last year, Beard said that the ongoing trend of online harassment directed at women was nothing more than "misogyny, but it is also alienation and resentment, understandably, about the voice and the right to speak".

She added: "The web is democratising and also the voice of people who don't think they have another outlet. And that voice can be punitive."

On her personal blog, A Don's Life, which she has kept since 2006, Beard expressed further concerns on the destructive nature of internet trolling, adding: "It would be quite enough to put many women off appearing in public, contributing to political debate."

Charles Leadbeater, a former policy adviser to the Labour government, recently advocated a prize in the classicist's name to recognise those who tackled such online misogyny. "I'd love to create something like the Mary Beard prize for women online to support people who are supporting women to be able to use the internet safely," he said.

[dps]

So the films exaggerate the SS badassery a bit?

But, but, they get the cool white on black counters!

[Tonitrus]

The level of security is shockingly high compared to the old days. Back in the 1970s any drunken fool could stroll down Downing Street any old time of day or night and exchange badinage with the copper outside number 10 

In general I don't think that the political classes should be protected any more than the general public. Clearly some allowances have to be made for people like the PM who are vulnerable to the attention of nutters.

I'm kind of put off about our modern sense of "hyper-security".  On one hand, I understand the need, as our greater population means more potential nutters in general (and more lethal means these days), but also even in the more widespread sense, with Homeland Security, there are way more "OMG WE NEED SAFETY AND SECURITY!!!!111" nutters out there.  And we're way too obsessed in being protected from any possible, or theoretical danger.

I mean hell, do we all want to live forever?

[alfred russel]

The level of security is shockingly high compared to the old days. Back in the 1970s any drunken fool could stroll down Downing Street any old time of day or night and exchange badinage with the copper outside number 10 

In general I don't think that the political classes should be protected any more than the general public. Clearly some allowances have to be made for people like the PM who are vulnerable to the attention of nutters.

I remember as a kid in the early 90s visiting washington DC and having Pres. Bush go by while he was out jogging. He had security, but still that would never happen now.

[dps]

The level of security is shockingly high compared to the old days. Back in the 1970s any drunken fool could stroll down Downing Street any old time of day or night and exchange badinage with the copper outside number 10 

In general I don't think that the political classes should be protected any more than the general public. Clearly some allowances have to be made for people like the PM who are vulnerable to the attention of nutters.

I remember as a kid in the early 90s visiting washington DC and having Pres. Bush go by while he was out jogging. He had security, but still that would never happen now.

Of course not--he hasn't been President for over 20 years.   

[MadImmortalMan]

I'm kind of put off about our modern sense of "hyper-security".  On one hand, I understand the need, as our greater population means more potential nutters in general (and more lethal means these days), but also even in the more widespread sense, with Homeland Security, there are way more "OMG WE NEED SAFETY AND SECURITY!!!!111" nutters out there.  And we're way too obsessed in being protected from any possible, or theoretical danger.

I mean hell, do we all want to live forever?

You'll never outvote the scared mommys. But I agree with you.

[Neil]

The level of security is shockingly high compared to the old days. Back in the 1970s any drunken fool could stroll down Downing Street any old time of day or night and exchange badinage with the copper outside number 10 

In general I don't think that the political classes should be protected any more than the general public. Clearly some allowances have to be made for people like the PM who are vulnerable to the attention of nutters.

And that was back when the IRA was killing anything that moved.