I have real problems with these sorts of reports. Of course we should look back at what happened and see if we could do better. Well, of course we can. No response to an unexpected emergency will be perfect. "It is very easy to look back and criticise the actions on the day – but the ‘fog of war’ is a very serious obstacle. " How do you avoid the confusion caused by the "fog of war". There is one easy way. I am surprised no one has mentioned it. Peter Cook did years ago. It is surprisingly simple: Jonathan Miller and Peter Cook in the "Beyond the Fringe" piss take of the Civil Defence instructions on "what do do in the event of nuclear war". Cook said: "The first thing to remember is to be out of the area where the bombs are dropping." Quite. The retrospectascope is an infallible instrument. We can always look back and say this ambulance should have got there quicker, and that hospital should have.... and so on. I hate the sub-text of "blame" in which the Red Tops love to indulge. The only way to have a perfect response to an unexpected terrorist outrage is to have the whole country on red alert. And if we do that, the terrorists have won. Ordinary life will be impossible. Are we to assume that every 1st division football match is to be bombed? Every theatre? Every rock concert? Should we search everyone as they go in? There is no end to it. We just need to get on with our lives. The emergency services perform pretty well by and large. By all means, lets learn some gentle lessons, but I don't want the whole ambulance service sitting there 24 hours a day on red-alert wearing gas masks. Who is going to take my little old ladies with fractured hips to hospital. John