The U.K. newspaper The Independent is reporting that when the police in Kent raided eco-protestors at a climate change camp near the Kingsnorth Power Station they seized a number of rather prosaic items including chisels, bolt cutters, knives and, somewhat surprisingly, a copy of the War on Terror: The Board Game. 

 

Produced by Terror Bull Games, War on Terror: The Board Game (see “War on Terror”) is a clever take on games like Risk and Diplomacy in which players create empires and struggle for world domination, except that the players in The War on Terror game can train terrorist cells that can be used against enemies, or if the player is unlucky, can turn against the states that created them.  In one of its most biting satirical touches, the game includes an “Axis of Evil” spinner that arbitrarily indicates which player/country is designated as a “terrorist state.” 

 

The player who is designated as a “terrorist” state has to wear a balaclava (Brit speak for a ski mask) with the word “Evil” embroidered on it—and it was this ski mask that caused the Kent constabulary to seize the game.  The Kent police contended that “the balaclava could be used to conceal someone’s identity, or could be used in the course of a criminal act.”  It appears that when it comes to the War on Terror board game, the police, like the buyers for the tony high street chains that have refused to carry the game, sorely lack a sense of humor.