The Millennium Dome Bombing Saga

 

MD News
Winter 1 Sunday 26/12/1999
DOME DISASTER
Dome BeforeDome After
The Dome last weekThe Dome this morning

The ultimate security nightmare became reality last night when the Millennium Dome Bomber made good threats dismissed as the ravings of a crank. His two-pronged attack began at 11:03 p.m. last night when a small explosion damaged the S-2 pylon at the southern end of the Dome.
   The Dome, empty of all but staff working on the exhibits on the night of Christmas Day, was evacuated promptly. The security staff began immediate checks for further devices. Army bomb disposal experts were using a remotely controlled robot to examine devices found on pylons S-1 and S-3 when yet more devices concealed in the foundations of pylons N-1, N-2 and N-3 exploded, collapsing the north end of the Dome and damaging pylons W-1 and E-3.
   A spokesman for A New Millennium Dawn, the quango set up by the Government to run the Dome's affairs, confirmed that there is no hope of restoring the Dome before New Year's Eve. Extensive safety checks are required and engineers estimate that stabilizing the structure fully will take three to five weeks.
   The devices found on pylons S-1 and S-3 are believed to contain dummy charges planted to draw security experts away from the north end of the dome.

filed by Jarvic Klute [j.klute@md.news.uk]

 | A History of the Dome | 

How To Get There

Where to find the DomePeople hoping to visit the Dome site [Green circle at end of red arrow in figure] are advised that there may be long delays in approaching that region of London. The Blackwall Tunnel and North Greenwich Tube station and the coach station have all been closed until further notice. An intensive security operation is in progress to ensure that the entire Dome site is safe and specialist crime-scene investigators are operating all over the explosion zone.
   The police are not specifically excluding spectators from areas bordering the exclusion zone but they are not going out of their way to be co-operative. In fact, they are reflecting the pall of gloom hovering over the nation's senior politicians, most of whom were hoping to enjoy a night out at the taxpayer's expense in a few days' time. Sadly (for them), that isn't going to happen now.

filed by Meridien Fulbright [m.fulbright@md.news.uk]

WERE THE POLICE LOOKING
THE WRONG WAY?

Terrorist: Osama bin Laden
Photo: Lem Kirkashe
Although security was stepped up after an Algerian bomb-maker with links to Osama bin Laden was arrested at the Canadian border a week ago, there is a growing suspicion that the forces guarding the Millennium Dome were looking in the wrong direction for the threat to its security.
   An expert in the field, Professor Paulus Wilkersem of the Edinburgh Centre for the Study of Terrorism, told MD News that Irish terror groups were seen as posing the greatest security threat with the 'bin Laden network' coming a poor second.
   Next in the 'order of likeliness' was the threat from the millenarian cults, which have announced an eagerness to hasten the apocalypse which they believe is due to begin in the year 2000.
   The Professor added that the Millennium Dome and a collection of free-loading VIPs, including Prime Minister Angus McBlair and most of his Cabinet, was a very obvious target because a millennium-change celebration is not an overtly political event. "It is more a cultural monolith than a symbol of government," the Professor said.
   An attack by someone who was protesting about the decision to hold millenium-change celebrations one year too soon came "right out of left-field", the Professor admitted. While he was aware of the strength of feeling on this subject, Professor Wilkersem did not believe that the protestors would "get explosive".
   Although he added that this is the best sort of terrorist attack in that the sole aim is disruption with no risk to human life.

Don't Panic!

Scotland Yard has issued a statement telling Londoners and visitors to the capital that security at the remaining millennium events remains of paramount importance. No details are on offer but all police leave has been cancelled over the period of the bogus millennium change. Some 14,000 police officers will on duty, half of them in central London.

filed by Jarvic Klute [j.klute@md.news.uk]
 

 

MD News
Winter 1 Thursday 30/12/1999
POLICE CLOSE IN ON BOMBER

Home Sec. Chapman O'Straw
Photo: Tim deLong
The police hunt for the Millennium Dome Bomber, the self-styled MDB, continues and the Home Secretary is confidently forecasting that an arrest will take place 'in the next few days'. Forensic experts are continuing to sift the wreckage at the north end of the dome for clues as to the type and size of the devices used to destroy the northern pylons.
   The special Millennium Dome hotline has taken on more staff to handle the influx of calls from anxious members of the public. Special counsellors are available to advise callers on how to handle the distress caused by this assault on a symbol of our nationhood.
   A Department of Heritage spokesman announced that the repair and reconstruction work is on target for completion by the summer of next year, and that the national celebrations planned for December, 1999 to the end of January, 2000 will go ahead to mark the dawn of a new millennium.
   The spokesman also denied that problems over ticket allocations would have meant that those invited to the Dome's opening night would have had to spend several hours waiting at a nearby travel junction while final security checks were completed.
   Striking construction workers, protesting about the cutback in overtime on the Jubilee Line extension, have receive little sympathy or support from fellow trade unionists. Some of the workers have seen their weekly salaries fall from in excess of £5,000 per week to several hundred pounds per week. But on the up side, they're paying a lot less in tax.

filed by Jarvic Klute [j.klute@md.news.uk]
 

 

MD News
Winter 1 Saturday 01/01/2000
False End-Of-Millennium
Celebrations Worldwide

fireworksIt was fireworks all around the world as the new year began but Britain's Millennium Dome stayed dark, apart from torches flashed around by security staff, on what should have been its big opening night. Even the repair crews got a night off as the government thought better of paying out massive amounts of taxpayers' cash on a pointless gesture of defiance.
   After attending a service at Southwark Cathedral, the Queen pressed the button which fired a laser beam across the Thames to set the new 450ft London Eye ferris wheel rotating. Prime Minister Angus McBlair was supposed to have perform this duty but, insiders are saying, he pulled out after problems were found with the safety of three of the 32 passenger capsules. Mr. McBlair was unwilling to take the risk of being involved in another Millennium flop, our informant added.
2000 arrives   Despite a lot of work by engineers, the Eye could not be granted its safety certificate and it rotated without passengers through the night. Meanwhile, the Queen moved on to Tower Bridge to light the first of the chain of beacons which grew to stretch from one end of the country to another. She then returned to Windsor Castle for new year celebrations with her family.
Wall of fire   Two million people, according to a police estimate, gathered in central London to watch the million-pound fireworks display. The other big event, the so-called "River of Fire" along the Thames, turned out to be less than impressive.
   The string of 2,000 'pyrotechnic candles; described as one for each year of modern history [Except that we haven't done 2000 yet. Ed]; stretched from Tower Bridge to Vauxhall Bridge. They were let off, starting at midnight, at a rate which fired candle No. 2000 10.8 seconds after candle No. 1, which gave a movement rate corresponding to the rate at which the earth revolves at London's latitude.
   The concept behind the 'River of Fire' was described in a press release from the Culture Secretary as "a spiritually rotation with the planet into the new millennium". In fact, all people on the ground saw was a few pops and squirts of light and the whole thing was considered a total flop by anyone who saw it.
   A spokesman for the company which organized the 'spectacle' said, "Everything went off entirely as planned. Unfortunately, people were expecting rather more than what there was to see." Cynics are filing the "River of Fire" along with the rest of the New Labour hype and spin associated with the bogus millennium change.
   Elsewhere in the country, and around the world, Bogus Millennium firework displays and parties went on into the small hours as 2000 swept around the planet. But while Angus McBlair and his cronies were enjoying a good junket at vast public expense, all of them must have been well aware that the brooding, wounded monster that is the Millennium Dome is still lurking in Greenwich and waiting to serve up more embarrassment for them when the nation sobers up.

filed by Jarvic Klute [j.klute@md.news.uk]

A Conspiracy of Idiots?

BBC Into 2000What's all this stuff about 'The Millennium', which the BBC and national newspapers keep inflicting on us? Is there only one of them?
   Well, no, actually. A new one comes along every thousand years or so. In fact, each of them should be exactly 1,000 years long. But New Labour, and a lot of other idiots around the world, have conspired to reduce the second millennium of the Christian calendar to just 999 years.
   The first millennium of the Christian era began with the year 1 AD and lasted to the end of 1000 AD. The second millennium began on January 1st 1001 and should have run for 1,000 years – less the odd 14 days for the switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.
   But this British government, along with other idiot regimes around the world, had decided that their people are too thick to deal with anything other than round numbers. They think that their customers cannot grasp the simple concept that millennia start with a number ending with '1', e.g. the years 1, 1001, 2001, 3001, etc.
   So even though the Victorians celebrated the arrival of the 20th century on January 1st 1901, New Labour's idiots think it ends on December 31st 1999. Do the sums and you'll find New Labour has short-changed the 20th century by a whole year, making it just 99 years long, and performed the same shabby political trick on the second millennium.
   Previous rulers of this country have debased the coinage. New Labour has chosen to add debasing time to this List of Shame.

Cash plus intellectual dishonesty equals dumbing down

Why are newspapers, regardless of their 'quality' or 'tabloid' status, going along with 'The Millennium' concept? Why does that formerly respected institution the BBC have all sorts of rot on its website about the UK welcoming the 21st century when it doesn't arrive for another year? Or a headline saying 'UK greets 21st Century dawn' when any educated person knows it is total garbage?
   Money and sheer laziness has to be the answer; that and a large measure of arrogance and double-think. Why else would columnists like Pollen Tonybee of 'The Guardian' sneer at people who insist on accuracy and call them 'pedants', or normally sensible people like Keith Waterho of the 'Daily Mail' go along with the millennial sham?
   If the likes of Tonybee and Waterho were challenged under circumstances in which ignorance would be humiliating, then they would be quick to acknowledge that they have been enthusiastically serving a political lie. But they are being paid to write rubbish in their respective newspapers, and they seem quite happy to take the money and run, knowing that they are contributing to New Labour's dumbing down process. Which reinforces yet again the maxim that you can't believe anything you read in the papers. Sad, isn't it?

filed by Meridien Fulbright [m.fulbright@md.news.uk]

Millennium Bug Didn't Bite

Millennium bug warningThe Millennium Bug – What is it?

Like most things to do with 'The Millennium', the concept is plain wrong. The 'Millennium Bug' is not a defect in computer programs, it's a limitation. Many programs written in the 1980s and earlier used 2 digits to identify the year. Which works fine up to 1999 but when 2000 comes along, it is logical for these programs to interpret '00' as the year 1900.
   The Millennium Effect can be considered a limitation rather than a defect because, given the pace of development in software of all types and computer operating systems, no one expected these programs to be in use still when the year 2000 arrived. And very few of them will be as the software industry is aware of the problem and there has been a concerted campaign to identify programs in which this limitation is a disadvantage and rewrite or replace them.

Billions spent but a successful campaign

This campaign has involved expenditure of hundreds of millions of pounds for large companies but it has been very successful. No part of the world where 'The Millennium' dawned ahead of Britain's new year has reported significant problems. Even in Russia, which was expected to have problems if any nation did, the millennium bug has taken a day off and none of Russia's nuclear installations has blown up and none of its nuclear missiles has taken to the air.
   Dire warnings of telephone systems dying, power cuts, TV and radio blackouts, transport failures, cash machines refusing to work or paying out huge sums of cash, and aircraft dropping out of the sky have been proved to be nothing more than idle scaremongering.
   The Foreign Office was particularly zealous in warning that the Millennium Bug could be a major problem in backward countries and that international travel was likely to suffer severe disruption. It was in this context that over-cautious airlines elected to put fewer aircraft than normal in service when midnight struck. None of these aircraft reported having 'Millennium Bug' related problems.

filed by Dana Howmaj [d.howmaj@md.news.uk]
 

 

MDB News
Winter 1 Wednesday 05/01/2000
BOMBING WAS A PROTEST

Sabs Rule!There is great resentment among the Millennium Dome Sabs community at all the attention gained by the self-styled Millennium Dome Bomber (MDB). The Sabs insist that they have been active since before the Dome site at Greenwich was cleared and they have been the main driving force behind popular resistance to the Dome and all it stands for. [Unlike the MDB, their objection is to the Dome itself, not the government's plan to open it to mark a false dawn to the third millennium of the Christian era.]
   The Sabs quoted a list of demonstrations and delaying tactics stretching back three years in support of their case that they are the true representatives of resistance to the Millennium Dome. Their protests have been entirely lawful and peaceful in the main, despite occasionally heavy-handed policing in response to government embarrassment. The MDB's action, they insist, was both reckless and dangerous, and it was carried out with a thoughtless disregard for the safety of the general public.
   "People could have been badly injured or even have died in a stampede to get out of the Dome," a MD Sabs spokeswoman said last night. "We condemn this bombing utterly. But even though we shall co-operate fully with police efforts to find this terrorist, we shall continue our own lawful protests against this grotesque monstrosity."
   A statement from the MDB himself surfaced last night. One part was dated December 24th and was alleged to have been faxed to government representatives on the day before the bomb attack. The MDB announced that the assault on the Dome was a protest against the waste of money and the monumental scope for corruption available in a billion-pound project. [The original estimates for the Dome's cost was £700M to £800M, the over-run cost to date, excluding repairs after the bomb attack, is estimated at £1.6B.]
   In the second part of his statement, the MDB goes on to denounce the condemnation of his action by what he calls: "The usual suspects, the people expecting to blag anything from some free lunches to millions of pounds out of the nose-bag."
   A spokesman for New Scotland Yard refused to comment on rumours that both the Government and the police have been receiving regular warnings from the MDB over a period in excess of three months. A spokesman for the Home Office insisted that it is entirely proper for the police to withhold information on operational matters, which could play a part in the conviction of the so-called MDB.
   The same spokesman refused to speculate on when an arrest is likely, insisting that the police are receiving new information every day.

report by Insider [In-114@mdb.news.uk]
 

 

MDB News
Winter 1 Monday 10/01/2000
RIOT AT PM'S CONSTITUENCY

Give us our year back, you bastard!The 20th Century Appreciation Society is being blamed for causing a near riot at the Prime Minister's Dredgefield constituency last Saturday morning. The TCAS picketed his MP's surgery as a protest against the government's decision to call a premature halt to the 20th Century on December 31st last.
   Waving signs, most of them bearing a variation of the message: "Give us our year back, you bastard", a group of twenty to thirty demonstrators give a cheap thrill to those members of the media who had bothered to turn up to what was seen as largely a cosmetic opportunity for the PM's constituents to be photographed while meeting their MP.
   Heavy-handed policing is being blamed for the trouble. The local police, for their part, are trying to play the whole incident down, probably due to the fact that eight of the nineteen people arrested needed hospital treatment.

   Bruised Feelings

The rather sensitive senior police officers with responsibility for the Dredgefield area are reported to have been upset considerably by being called 'anti-democratic', 'stiflers of legitimate political protest', 'keepers of violent thugs' and 'traitors to truth' in the subsequent TCAS press release, which includes a good selection of photographs of police officers apparently clubbing demonstrators to the ground.
   This highly informative document praises the Millennium Dome Bomber for sparing Her Majesty the Queen the embarrassment of being involved in the McBlair government's celebration of the false dawn of a new millennium. The bomber deserves a medal, not prosecution, the TCAS asserts in the release, and the police are 'self-deluding dreamers' if they think a jury will convict him. [Or her. Ed.]

filed by Insider [In-114@mdb.news.uk]
 

 

MD News
Winter 1 Wednesday 12/01/2000
The MDB – does he have a point?

Prime Minister Angus McBlair
The UK: "run by idiots"
Photo: Oliver Strange Agency
Yes, is the simple answer.
   Just because a country is run by idiots, that's not a reason to assume that most people in that country are also idiots. Especially when one realizes that over 70% of the electorate didn't vote for the present government, which so kindly gave us the Millennium Dome, in which Prime Minister (and arch idiot) Angus McBlair wanted to hold millennium change celebrations a whole year to soon.

Intellectual dishonesty

If the Victorians would handle the concept of the start of the 20th century being on January 1st 1901, then it says a lot for the success of New Labour's dumbing down process, and similar processes in countries all around the world, that Angus McBlair expected to get away with pretending that the 21st century starts on January 1st 2000.
   The Millennium Dome Bomber, whoever he, she or they is/are, handed McBlair a bloody nose over the Dome, even if he/she/they was/were unable to prevent the rest of shindigs held to celebrate the arrival of 'The Millennium'. For that achievement, the MDB deserves the nation's thanks and the acknowledgement that, yes, he/she/they does/do have a point.

filed by Meridien Fulbright [m.fulbright@md.news.uk]
 

 

MD News
Winter 1 Thursday 20/01/2000
NO SPONSORSHIP PROBLEMS

The Government is involved in urgent talks over security with the commercial sponsors of the Millennium Dome. The companies, which have pledged many millions of pounds to the Dome project, are concerned by the negative publicity following the Christmas Day attack on the fabric of the Dome and the enforced cancellation of the New Year festivities. A Heritage Department spokesman said earlier today that none of the sponsors is pulling out and that all of them are fully satisfied with the current security arrangements.
   On a brighter note, the repair work on the Dome is on target for its completion date of the end of February. The Jubilee Line extension is also expected to be opened before its revised target date of March 19th.
   A police service spokesman has confirmed that all but one of the thirty-six people arrested since the bombing of the Dome have been released. The latest suspect, believed to be a woman, was arrested last night following a high-speed car chase and she is still helping with inquiries.

filed by Dana Howmaj [d.howmaj@md.news.uk]
 

 

MD News
Winter 1 Monday 07/02/2000
CHARM OFFENSIVE WORKS
Prime Minister Angus McBlair
McBlair: "Under pressure"
Photo: Oliver Strange Agency
The Government's "Millenium Dome Charm Offensive" is having some positive effect. Just one of the commercial sponsors has dropped out and the rest are holding firm. The discussion on what to put in the Dome to make it more interesting continues, however, and Prime Minister Angus McBlair is believed to be under pressure to relax his guidelines for the Dome's content. A sizeable element of the cabinet is believed to favour of placing the emphasis on entertainment as well as making a statement of the new values of a re-branded Britain.
   A normally reliable government source has denied that A New Millennium Dawn, the Dome's management quango, will be asking for an injection of £205M of Lottery money into the project to keep it on track and fund unexpected expenses arising from the repair work.
   Rumours that the future of the "Dome Secretary", Dame Shirley Worthy, is in question were also denied.

filed by Jarvic Klute [j.klute@md.news.uk]
 

 

MDB News
Winter 1 Tuesday 15/02/2000
"SABS" STRIKE BACK

The statements from the self-styled "Millennium Dome Bomber" are fakes, a spokesman for New Scotland Yard revealed last night. The information provided with the statements in an attempt to prove that they came from the real MDB has been dismissed as either vague generalizations or just plain wrong. Four arrests in connection with the bombing were made in the Birmingham area at the weekend and a stream of calls continues to keep the police hotline busy.
Marsha Charlesworth
Marsha Charlesworth
voice of the MD Sabs
   The so-called "MD Sabs", the community of Millenium Dome saboteurs, is considering referring the police handling of the Dome bombing investigation to the European Court of Human Rights. The "MD Sabs" insist that they can offer seventeen clear cases where the police exceeded their authority in searches and detention procedures. The police service had no comment to make on this matter.
   Two government Internet sites were closed down for three hours last night following an invasion by a mystery hacker. Messages offering to reveal the identity of the Millennium Dome Bomber in return for a cash payment of £1,000,000 were seen by Internet-lurkers worldwide for most of the afternoon before the invasion was reported.
   A spokesman for New Scotland Yard denied that the hacker had offered his deal to the police and that it had been rejected. He added: "Any member of the public with information on this crime should come forward immediately."

filed by Insider [In-114@mdb.news.uk]
 

 

MD News
Winter 1 Tuesday 29/02/2000
NO MORE DOME CASH
Dome Secretary Dame Shirley Worthy
Dame Shirley: "full confidence"
Photo: Oliver Strange Agency
A normally reliable government source has denied that A New Millenium Dawn will be asking for an injection of £205M of Lottery money into the project to keep it on track and fund unexpected expenses arising from the repair work. A spokesman for the consortium of companies performing the repairs said: "There have been some problems over matching current materials to specifications for materials available at the time of the original construction, but we are in the business of problem-solving. When the main part of the Dome is opened to the public, it will be stronger and safer than ever."
   Rumours that the future of the "Dome Secretary", Dame Shirley Worthy, is in question were being vigorously denied in official circles last night. 'She retains the Prime Minister's full confidence' is the official word.

filed by Dana Howmaj [d.howmaj@md.news.uk]
 

 

MD News
Winter 1 Wednesday 08/03/2000
DOME NOT FOR SALE : McAndelsen
Heritage Minister Pierson McAndelsen
McAndelsen: "denies approach"
Photo: Oliver Strange Agency
Heritage Minister Pierson McAndelsen has denied that an approach has been made to the Government by a Japanese consortium offering to buy the Millennium Dome.
   A Heritage Ministry spokesman said last night: "We get stories like this surfacing every time some journalist is having trouble filling his or her work quota. It is also untrue that we have been approached by a Japanese consortium which wishes to buy Trafalgar Square so that it can be turned into a pedestrianized tourist attraction."
   A New Millenium Dawn, the Dome's management quango, hailed their grant of £121M of Lottery money as, "a common sense measure which will ensure the Dome's success in both the short and long terms."
   It is rumoured in government circles that the "Dome Secretary", Dame Shirley Worthy, who is the chair of the ANMD quango, will be standing down in a matter of days.

filed by Jarvic Klute [j.klute@md.news.uk]
 

 

MD News
Winter 1 Tuesday 14/03/2000
DOME SALE ON?

Information from usually reliable Japanese sources indicates that negotiations for the sale of the Millennium Dome to the so-called "Doshan" Syndicate are on-going despite denials from our Government. The feeling on the Japanese side is that the sale will go through in the near future, and all that remains to be done is to settle the price.

filed by Jarvic Klute [j.klute@md.news.uk]

DOME PATRONAGE SHOCKER

The Government's troubled position over its administration of the Millennium Dome worsened last night following the eruption of a scandal over patronage. It has been revealed that the new "Dome Secretary", the successor to the dumped Dame Shirley Worthy, is the daughter of a close school friend of Heritage Minister Pierson McAndelsen. A Government spokesman insisted last night that Baroness Wrathe (the former Alice Gracegirdle) remains the best person for the job and that Mr. McAndelsen has not stepped on a political banana skin.
Lord Hawksbane   The new Dome Secretary has received the approval of the 'Other Power Behind The Dome', Lord Hawksbane. The sometime flatmate of Prime Minister Angus McBlair took 'Young Ally' under his wing when she arrived in the upper chamber and he is reported to be very pleased with the progress of his protegée.
   Lord Hawksbane is believed to have been as influential as Heritage Minister Pierson McAndelsen in keeping the Millennium Dome project moving forward, but he has been a man in the shadows until recently. Now, he seems to be making up for lost time.
   This unelected member of the cabinet has spoken at three press conferences over the last seven days and he is frequently seen in the company of Campbell McAllister, the Prime Minister's Downing Street-based chief of communications.
   Luke, as Gerald Philip Lucas Hawksbane, Bart., prefers to be known, has also been spotted feeding his considerable face at five official dinners over the last week. He seems to be equally at home in the company of politicians, businessmen and journalists. He projects an air of urbane good-humour, especially after a couple of bottles of decent claret, and he seems to be in charge of presenting the affable face of New Labour.

filed by Maris O'Vishke [m.ov@md.news.uk]
 

Winter 1
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