Definitely doesn't sound like a lockdown.
Also, I get the impression that the UK armed forces genuinely don’t want to be used as an emergency police force, especially after their experience becoming one in NI. (That might just be wishful thinking on my part, but it is my impression).
As a comparison, we have relatively few police officers in the UK who routinely carry firearms. Certain policing organisations do, but mostly the guns and other "serious" hardware are reserved for specialist units within the regional forces. What is perhaps most telling is that the majority of our officers consistently say they don't want to routinely carry guns, not least because of the more confrontational culture it creates and the escalation of force it inevitably invites.
A long-serving police officer I used to know once opined that the only police officers who are allowed to have guns should be the ones who would honestly prefer not to, but who understand that sometimes an armed response is a practical necessity and so if called upon will see carrying and being willing to use firearms as a burden they are willing to accept to do a good job. The other side of that conversation was that in most cases, you really don't want the young officer whose main ambition is to rise up quickly and train as a specialist firearms officer to ever get that far. It was a fascinating insight into the kind of psychology that is happening underneath the use of force in different situations and the kind of mindset that is required for people with different roles in our society.
> I'm not sure anyone who is both sane and well informed wants a group of people trained for warfighting to be deployed in a domestic policing role.
Ironically, that’s why I have more trust in the UK armed forces than in the UK government at the moment. I don’t think the UK government is either of those things. I hope I’m wrong.
No riots nor looting.
Apart from the 300,000 that were deployed to Northern Ireland?