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# Trust and the war on terror
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/trust-and-the-war-on-terror/
- Published: 2008-03-05T09:03:41.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:39:40.000Z
- Author: openDemocracy Supporters
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:41

**Jon Bright (London,** [**OK**](http://ourkingdom.opendemocracy.net/?ref=opendemocracy.net)**):** Heard this radio ad yesterday which I had to put a post up on.

\[audio http://www.met.police.uk/so/docs/ct.mp3\]

It's from the Met's "[Trust your instincts](http://cms.met.police.uk/news/publicity%5Fcampaigns/terrorism/trust%5Fyour%5Finstincts%5Fit%5Fcould%5Fdisrupt%5Fterrorist%5Fplanning%5Fand%5Fsave%5Flives?ref=opendemocracy.net)" campaign - they are asking members of the public to phone a confidential hotline if they see any suspicious behaviour. We are asked: "How d’you tell the difference between someone just video-ing crowded place and someone who’s checking it out for a terrorist attack?" Answer - you don't have to, the Met will do it for you. "Trust your instincts: not each other" is the slogan that could have been.

You can see their point, of course - while we still, thankfully, live in an age without overarching surveillance, public tip-offs are an extremely important part of the counter terrorist operation. I'm certainly not suggesting people shouldn't phone the police if they genuinely think someone is building a bomb. But I also think this kind of advert, phrased in its casual, offhand manner, is only going to contribute to the general "atmosphere" of the war on terror - a low grade, residual fear, where everyone is a suspect and enemy is genuinely indistinguishable from friend. Can such an atmosphere, once created, ever truly be removed from a society? Or will we be living with adverts like this for the forseeable future - and with what consequences for much vaunted exercises building "community cohesion" and Putnam's vanished "social capital" ?

PS: Sunny Hundal [posts on this](http://www.liberalconspiracy.org/2008/03/07/there-isnt-enough-paranoia-around-apparently/?ref=opendemocracy.net) on Liberal Conspiracy and adds a witty picture.