“And I won’t open letter bombs for you…”*

It is difficult to see what the person or persons behind these letter bomb attacks hopes to achieve. Attacking the likes of Vantis and the DVLA really isn’t going to achieve a great deal other than giving the media outlets a story to speculate on in a slow news period when the weather is the only other major news story. I wonder whether the aim of the letter bombs is to kill or simply to create fear and disruption - although mail bombings can be fatal. I reckon this will prove to be the angry loner, our equivalent of the Unabomber. And it is tempting to see the letter bomber as a latter day Robin Hood, fighting back against our bureaucratic and increasingly dictatorial government. But all bombs – be it rucksack bombs on tube trains or letter bombs in Crapita’s office – are indiscriminate things and tend to end up hurting and killing people who are utterly detached from the real target of the attack. And it is tinfoil hat time if you really think sending fireworks in the mail is going to keep Blair awake at night (although this is a good example of one of the many things that should keep Blair awake at night).

Whatever the motive, these letter bombs represent an act of terrorism – maybe not with the same level of carnage and destruction as July 7th 2005, but still terrorism. And as much as I hate to use an act of terror to make a political point, it is difficult to see how ID cards could stop these letter bombs just as it is difficult to see how ID cards could have stopped 7/7.

*A line from the song “Career Opportunities” by the Clash (“I hate civil service rules/And I won’t open letter bombs for you”) – although also a fairly sensible sentiment in its’ own right.