"Severe"

Yesterday, Her Majesty's Government upgraded the UK terror threat level to "Severe", from "Substantial", apparently meaning that terrorist attacks against British targets are now "highly likely".

The government was at pains to let everyone know that the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) - a department of the Security Service (MI5) - had upgraded the threat, and that it was not a decision taken by ministers. Heaven forbid that some cynical souls might think this upgrade was designed to scare people into voting Labour! After all, there is no precedent for that - this government has never raised the level before crucial war votes in Parliament, or before other elections. Never.

Whatever the motives, people using London Underground yesterday certainly seemed to be taking the threat posed by terrorism more seriously. We had an above average number of calls about lost property and suspicious packages, with people now being careful to report their lost property directly to LU or the police rather than to the TfL Lost Property office. Station staff took a little more time over their security checks than normal. Trains were stopped while packages were searched for. Nothing went "bang". Hopefully, it will stay that way.