Threat Level. It sounds like a bad action TV series doesn’t it? Well for years now America has had its own Homeland Security Advisory Scheme.
Here’s what it looks like:

Currently America’s on Elevated – the middle rung if you like.
Obviously, we in the UK were really left out by this. It might be dangerous in New York, but we need to know how dangerous it is in London. Fortunately, the Home Office and MI5 have come up with their own system to scare us stupid.
The various levels are:

• critical – an attack is expected imminently
• severe – an attack is likely
• substantial – an attack is a strong possibility
• moderate – an attack is possible but not likely
• low – an attack is unlikely

We are currently at threat level SEVERE!
Yup – an attack is likely. And it’ll be Al Qaeda (or Al Qaida if you’re MI5). Be very scared. Stock up with bottled water and canned food. I hear that polythene and Duct tape are also essentials.
Here are the websites you need to bookmark now for regular checking:
The Home Office
The Security Service
(Is it me, or is that MI5 link a bit arbitrary looking? Page269.html?)
Of course what the government really needs to make available is a nice RSS feed of our current threat level. You know, something that I can put at the top of this site, and into Bloglines, onto the front page of my customised Google and into MyYahoo. That sort of thing.
I’ll be honest, I don’t go to the Home Office’s website all that often, except when I’ve gotten really scared by something that John Reid has said when defending the need for ID Cards. I know all those illegal immigrants are after my job after all. Probably my home too.
Keep ’em peeled!