Alpha Charlie, does your job description include an obligation to knowingly put yourself and those under your care in harms way? Unless you are member of a security service I very much doubt it.
Our union has been asking for a meeting with the minister and the civil servants concerned with the implementation of the armed police crew member scheme announced over a year ago but they were not interested. Considering we are one of the most highly regulated professions that have to abide by the ANO, which is law, not some set of rules arbitrarily agreed on by management, the government are now asking us to bend those laws to suit their 'orders' from the USA.The rules for allowing us to carry armed personnel on a Public Transport aircraft allow the commander to have the final decision.
Now, consider this, does your life and other insurances cover you if you knowingly put yourself in a situation that is believed to be under a specific threat from terrorism? If anything should happen would your family be compensated for the loss should you have knowingly put yourself in harms way?
The way this whole saga has unfolded is a farce and shows the total lack of real understanding of the problems by those who make the ultimate decisions. The government announced to the public - not the pilots or crews - that they were implementing the carriage of armed police on specific flights that were deemed to be under a threat based on what they called intelligence. How would you feel if all of a sudden you were told that your flight has been targetted and they are going to put an armed policeman on for your protection because they feel you need it?
Our union is taking the correct stance. They have been asking for talks ever since the announcement was made over a year ago and the government ignored the request and all of a sudden try to implement their decision without considering all the implications. you only had to listen to Alastair Darling being interviewed this evening on Radio Five Live. The interviewer introduced the talk about a
secret european 'safety' blacklist that has been leaked today and Darling was clearly confused between 'safety' and 'security'. It all reeks of ineptitude and sound bite politics designed to fool the travelling public.
Either we expect our ministers to be properly briefed by their underlings or else we complain and make a fuss as we are doing now. At least we are highlighting some of the glaring (to us) inadequacies in the security. The band-aid solution of a few sky marshalls on the odd flight here and there does nothing to make any of us who work in this environment feel any safer. If only the public really knew how pathetic security really is and the terrorists will be exploiting those weaknesses. Never, ever expect the obvious from those suicide terrorists. What have we been given? An obvious placebo which as far as we are concerned is likely to be as bad for us as it may be good.
