Even in Lisbon airport they have those 3D-scanners now. Why not in the rest of Europe? Easy: cost-saving and the security-industry is a multi-billion Euro/Dollar/Pound business that will not allow those rules to be changed. It's embarrassing that we still need to take out our liquids and that there limitations of liquids at all, it's almost 2020, the technology to identify harmful substances does exist!
Will_161 well, if you really believe that you are the "last line of defence" and that the security procedures that you and all the security-people in airports follow are useful, then they have managed to indoctrinate you very well. Your job is - please don't take it personal - a complete waste of time. The bad guys will get the bad stuff in through others channels, namely catering and other landside based means and if they really wanted to, they would have succeeded. Well, they have, do you remember the Russian Airbus out of Sharm El-Sheik? That was not the act of a passenger. And the same is possible, for example in Heathrow (or any other airport): it is not feasible to search catering-trucks and in 99% of cases the catering is produced outside the CP or even the perimeter of an airport. To enter, the driver has to show a piece of paper, his licence/pass and probably go through sreening and some dedicated security-officer thoroughly searches the outside of the truck with a high-tech mirror, before having a quick look in the cabin of that vehicle. What about the 50 catering trolleys???
Security is there because of good lobbying by people who run the show and make lots and lots of money with this nonsense-circus. The security procedures that we had in place pre-9/11 were good enough: trust the crews, don't treat them like potential criminals/terrorists, they usually keep their eyes open for strange people. After being treated like a dick by some power-hungry school-aborter, one surely does not give a damn. On top of it there are some laughable screening procedures, especially in the UK! I do fly a business jet (commercial rules). The idiocy that us crew, our passengers and FBOs have to put up with is un-be-f**king-liev-able!!
What p*ss*s me off the most is the complete lack of trust that is put into already background-checked people like us. It used to be different and I do not remember any terrorist acts committed or facilitated by crew members. Luckily there are still countries where security staff is using their common sense and make our lives easier, because they know exactly how inefficient and stupid the procedures are that have been put in place.