"Operation Over-Bearing Morally-Bankrupt Self-Richeous Statism" was taken. Sorry.

Was it postponed by a day due to bad weather ?

Operation Overlord needed the use of Force, not something that now calls itself the bloody "Police Service"

Overlord, huh? I've wondered where Tom Hanks has been recently.

The police and the BBC really are scrapping the barrel when they think that the seizure of a 9oz block of cannabis is worthy of national attention. This is a relatively small seizure. The price paid for the 9oz block was probably less than GBP400. Even when sold on at the rather inflated "street value" that police press officers love to quote it is still worth only around GBP1,200.

Even for those deluded people who believe in the "war on drugs" it is ridiculous to compare the scale of this operation with the real Overlord.

It is obscene that the law in Britain allows for a maximum 14 year sentence for such a "crime." The only positive thing that can be said for the "war on drugs" is that it is playing some part in radicalizing part of the population against the overmighty nanny state.

Did they need the Americans and Canadians to make up over half the manpower involved?

I suspect that your local police are a bit inexperienced in public relations. They name it Operation Overlord to pump up the troops, not realizing that the population may not feel so enthusiasic about a police force that considers itself "overlords".

It reminds me of the time when the FBI built the system to monitor ISPs and named it Carnivore. The press got hold of that and wouldn't let go. The FBI withdrew the project then re-introduced it several months later under a much more innocuous name. I think it is still in place.

There is a seepage of tin-eared PR into the naming of all sorts of things in order to claim public support.

Codenames started as arbitrary handles for security, short enough to be memorable and save bandwidth, distinctive enough not to be confused--not descriptive, and NOT public. Now what the public is told are "codenames" are actually puffs. Compare: OVERLORD, TORCH, MARKET GARDEN, MANHATTAN, TRINITY, PURPLE, MAGIC; Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The same thing is happening to the law. Acts of parliament or congress used to be named to describe their contents, now the names often disguise the intent, or amount to politics by other means by encapsulating populism and defying legislators to oppose. In the US this is more obvious, e.g., PATRIOT Act, REAL-ID, Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act. But it is creeping in here, too. Some recent examples: Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005, Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004, Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, and (of course) the Identity Cards Bill--which has very little to say about cards and a great deal on Home Office powers for data collection and control.

Still, you have to admit "Operation: Infinite Justice" sounded really cool, in a launch every Zig sort of way...

"Cool," is not the word. Chilling.

I prefer my justice limited, contextually conditioned, and procedural rather than substantive.

on a vaguely related point, i tried ecstasy for the first time last night. i recommend highly! cheaper than beer.

A very small silver lining to the very large dark cloud that overshadows these violent times is that the war on drugs - that is to say the "war" on a particular form of unhealthy behaviour - no longer gets the prestige it once did.

If you were an American, I'd have to tell you you were kidding yourself. Over here the drug war is more megalomaniacal and vicious than ever, helped along now and then by recourse to various "anti-terrorism" powers. The dream that the country would reprioritize away from prohibition in the wake of September 11, 2001 has been cruelly falsified. It's possible, though, that in Britain it is sort of as you say.

Still, while you may detect a note of pathos in the publid relations surrounding the newest "Operation: Overlord," I can't help noting that it happened: cops swooped in on twenty homes in a week in some part of Scotland nobody's ever heard of for the sake of confiscating some weed and rousting some pot-smokers. It sounds like they're doing all right for themselves, by their own standards.

Jim Henley observes:

... cops swooped in on twenty homes in a week in some part of Scotland nobody's ever heard of for the sake of confiscating some weed and rousting some pot-smokers. It sounds like they're doing all right for themselves, by their own standards.

Yeah, well. It sounds to me like a bunch of hooligans sucking at the public tit need to find honest work.