It's not really for our benefit as random members of the public, nor that of the media. This is an official grading which will trigger various practices in the security and intelligence services which may not have been commissioned under the previous threat level. As the PM mentioned, there will be very little difference to the random man on the street, except that we might notice more visibly armed security or find ourselves subject to more frequent/thorough security checks.
Maybe, we didn't see that during the local elections though. People were touting huge Tory losses and Labour victories then, but in reality whilst Labour of course made gains I think they would have been disappointed with their returns, whilst the Tories were likely relieved. And that's with the Lib Dem > Labour losses factored in.
I appreciate that in a General people are much less likely to vote for a Party such as UKIP than they might be in Local/European elections, and that turnout will be higher, but I don't think UKIP are going to decimate the Tories to Labour's gain as much as is being touted.
