I was in Chester today, and noticed two armed police officers casually walking around the centre, with those large military-style assault rifles (or whatever they are - I'm no gun expert) held across their chests as if in readiness to use.
This was in the midst of kids eating their ice creams, people enjoying the sun, etc. These police didn't look as if they'd been called out to deal with any particular scare/threat - just patrolling.
Seems really over the top to me. I can understand the need to have such officers on readiness nearby. But walking around like that unnecessarily alarming people? I don't think Britain is quite a war zone yet, is it? And given the particular nature of the threat, I doubt it makes us any safer.