CRayner
I have had more than enough of the humourless and stupid attitude of these people who delight in subjecting people who well outrank them in almost every human virtue to meaningless humiliation.
I am amazed at the attitude displayed by some people here. The personality and attitudes of security staff, and any other member of staff in the airport for that matter, are totally irrelevant. Most of them are probably working long hours for little pay doing a very tedious repetitive job and coping with abuse from passengers. No wonder some of them are humourless. However, I've encountered many such people who have been a joy to meet and chat to. To suggest that these staff are`outranked' by most of the people they are providing a service for demonstrates complete arrogance. I expect that you believe you should be allowed to drive right up to the aircraft and climb aboard at your convenience rather than go through the hassle and humiliation of checking in, security, passport control etc.
I struggle to understand why anyone would feel humiliated when being asked to remove their belt or shoes or take a laptop out of its bag. These measures are for the good and safety of everybody. And it should be the departure airport that decides what level of security is appropriate. After all we are trying to prevent ourselves being blown up whilst in the air, not from being attacked by fellow passengers once we have entered the destination country.
The real issue is whether the current measures are effective or not, and whilst I am certainly no expert, I suspect that removing belts and shoes adds little to the chance of preventing a potential threat. However I am more than happy to continue doing so until there is evidence that this is of no security benefit whatsoever. As I implied in an earlier post, if I were in charge I would have all passengers and hand baggage scanned again on entering the departure lounge immediately before boarding the aircraft. And if there was evidence that removing all clothing was necessary then so be it (of course in private cubicles or that would be humiliating).