Change is only going to be achieved, when the basic approach taken to security at airports itself is changed. At the moment, security as undertaken by BAA (or any other company for that matter), is done on the basis of a trade off between cost and risk. You may say that this will always be the case, whether this is in the public sector, or private, which is true. However, the clue is the nature of the risk and how it is perceived. In the private sector, the risk is defined by the threat not to lives, but to the company's position, should security fail. If in the public sector, the risk is, again, not to lives, but to the government's election prospects, should security fail. Therefore, there will always be a cost vs risk argument, but I would much rather see the public sector option, where the millions of inconvenienced people, pilots, airport workers, etc, even SLF, are able to vote the people responsible out of office, rather than the current situation.