Bearing in mind the reactions I have had when I have suggested the Provisional IRA might yield up their semtex, I don't think DougR's claim that "we are all anti-terrorist minded" would have stood much scrutiny before September 11.

Quick law usually turns out to be bad law, but even so, I wouldn't have thought that the measures now being acted were a huge encroachment on civil liberty. (Of course, I live in a country where we are not even allowed to bear arms.)

What should be of greater concern is that while these measures will cause minor inconvenience to the innocent, they will do nothing whatsoever to constrain the terrorists. Moreover, the present ham-fisted onslaught in Afghanistan will ensure a continuing supply of terrorists ready to give their lives causing havoc in simple ways. Remember they needed only a few penkives to panic the strongest nation on earth. God knows what they might they do with pointed sticks.