Is London becoming intolerant to tourism?

Not only tourism, but also simple life in London is becoming harder: "security reasons."

What security? And especially, what's the danger? Now that the excuse of international terrorism is becoming more and more incongruous, Londoners and tourists in the UK are wondering what are the reasons for this increasing hostility and harshness from the police and security services in general.

I had written an article back in April about this topic, when a tourist was stopped and asked to delete all his pictures from his camera. That seemed to have been an isolated case, but unfortunately it wasn't: a photographer friend of mine was asked (read: forced) by the police to delete all her pictures from her camera. Reason? "You can't take photos of buildings?" Um... What??? "But it's my job!" My friend tried to explain. "Sorry, luv." The end.

Yesterday I read an article from Tom Gates, editor at Matador Nights, about his recent misadventure at Heathrow Airport. He was pretty gentle, I would have put in place all the loudest aspects Italians are (in)famous all over the world for. Easy prey, he might have been, but the truth is that security, or whatever officers, shouldn't be allowed of treating people like this.

After CCTV all over the place, a disgraceful anti-terror media campaign, able only to foment fear of your neighbour, the atmosphere in the UK is getting heavier. Good aspect of all this? The late campaign didn't work, people are waking up and human empathy is growing.