#BritishThreatLevels: Founder of Twitter hashtag that mocked terror alert explains the response

Britons have responded to news that the terror threat level was raised to ‘critical’ in the most British way possible: with humour.

Twitter users adopted the hashtag #BritishThreatLevel to affirm that the country will not be scared into submission, and describe the only circumstances that might cause them to retreat. The hashtag was trending for more than eight hours yesterday, according to trackers.

It all started with @Jeremy_JCook, who tweeted “We’re British. I don’t get scared until the threat level hits ‘Replacement Bus Service’.” @NickMotown added: “We’re British. You can’t scare us until you raise the threat level to ‘I’m sorry, but there’s only continental breakfast left’.”

His tweet was replied to by comedy writer Andrea Mann, who said:

Apparently Twitter agreed with Andrea: the hashtag was used hundreds of times – and reached millions – as Britons confirmed they would not be bowed by terrorism.

“I do think that there is a place for humour when we go through terrible things, whether that’s individually or as a group of people or as a nation,” Andrea told Yahoo News.

“Of course, it has to be the right sort of humour: but it can be cathartic to find something to smile about still – it’s almost like a collective release – and I think that what came out of #BritishThreatLevels was a gentle, collective and, yes, very British, mocking of ourselves and a much-needed reason to smile and laugh in the midst of such a horrific situation.

“Humour is such an important part of the human spirit – it’s partly what makes us human! – and it’s so important to keep that spirit alive, particularly in the face of those who want to destroy it.”

Tea was a leading theme

Queuing was in the mix

Some turned on British television programming

And interacting with strangers was a particularly popular category

Other food-related concerns were mentioned

And of course, no trending British hashtag would be complete without a nod to…

The weather

Unfortunately, there were a minority who tried to use the hashtag to get political:

Twitter did not, in fact, promote the tweet: the Trending hashtags sidebar is automated, programmed by the number of times a hashtag is being used in a particular time period. And fellow Brits did not take kindly to the politics.

For more uplifting stories in the face of Monday night’s unforgivable attack, see:

• Sikh community rallies to help victims

• How you can help after the Manchester terror attack

• Manchester people so generous they are literally queuing to give blood

• People in Manchester open their homes to help those affected