had this happened anywhere else in Europe .. it would have been a non event .. not even tea and bickies material.
Says it all for the UK way .. and I have to say as a brit working abroad it is B@llocks ... perceived threat ? ah like the tanks at LHR .. yeh right. YAWN.
Sure, his card may well have been marked from previous politics but "the rule", interpreted as only the UK does is about as relevant to flight safety as the confiscation of legal quantities of cologne because they are not in a plastic bag, and "no sir you cannot go and get a bag because we are here to enforce... ahem... the law"... you are then free to buy 1 liter glass bottles of vodka to take aboard
"Oh and that bottle of water your 2 year old is drinking from in her buggy is illegal too .. give it to me or I will tear it out of her mouth"
"oh no is that toothpaste you have there captain" ??? !!!!!
Just for the record, I refused my UK CEO a jumpseat because it contravened the SOP's in force at the time .. for all I knew it was the security department playing games ... had tea and bickies for my trouble and the company procedures inexplicably changed the following week !!.
So guys, and girls, this whole debacle is PC no win nonsense.
Remember the millennium bug ? big problem, kept a lot of wasters in profitable work for a long and expensive time, and the actual problem ? ZILCH, it worked because of fear alone, an excellent if amoral marketing strategy, and one that the sceptered isle seems proud to inflict upon those trapped in or traveling to or from it.
Blinkered thinking, blinkered country .. what do you expect, but hey keep your heads down just in case.
Join Europe and get a life !!
TR
