God save the Queen(s)...

The security detail provided to some people who fall under various categories seems to be a cruel joke. A joke because the public are subjected to great hardships while the public servant is protected from potential threats which history would tell you never happened. It is simply incomprehensible that so much on man, machinery and time is spent on safeguarding one person without realistically assessing the risk that is attributed to this person.

I have been one of many who have groaned, fumed and vented ire on a Very Very Important Person rushing around in a huge convoy of vehicles while Very Very ordinary persons like me are barricaded away or forced to make detours. It is even more disheartening to know that I have contributed to this gross waste of public money by paying my taxes on time. After all death is inevitable for all, what is the point of denying this?

I do not have statistics but the number of VVIP dying from external causes read it as terrorist attack or assassinations should be countable on one’s fingers. Again you face the question is it worth it? I have a belief that this security has gone beyond its utilitarian value and has moved to become the perks of the position or even worse an expensive ego massage. I have observed that trained security men usually from the specialist services being reduced to orderlies running errands usually unobtrusively for those whom they guard. I vividly remember one horrifying instance when the shoes of one leader were wiped by an officer in the full media glare.

This cruel joke on the paying public gets exacerbated further when the security is extended to the family also, so you have bear the sight of thugs, goons and worse who are part of the family walking smugly behind those who were originally trained to lock them up. There are times when the extended families are protected, extended when leaders have multiple wives and multiplying offspring so much so that family gatherings become one big party.

All this security can protect these people from external threats but they eventually succumb to the threat from within or nature. Will Z category stop a myocardial infraction or a helicopter crash?

I saw a VVIP who looked visibly very sick despite all the airbrushed images on the hoardings around. Ideally the protection should be for the disease that seems to have crept in despite all the security. 

As I said the joke IS on us.