The purpose of the photo is to make sure that the person boarding the aircraft is the same person who entered the airside lounge. You are scanned in the first time, and the second security guard at the gate checks the stored photo from the barscan which was printed out and attached to your ticket. Seems sensible enough to me.
As for GLA - grrr. There is a massive massive massive hole in the security at the domestic security screen which would allow anyone to take on board explosives, handguns, knives, machetes etc... in fact anything smaller than a rifle. An added bonus of this security 'feature' is that if anyone did catch the weapons, it wouldn't be the smuggler that would get fingered.
An f/o I was travelling with remarked on this. We had a chat with the security guy who agreed with us and called over his supervisor. Supervisor listens for a little while, and then, seriously (!), starts shouting and ranting at us in front of the bemused pax queuing up to have their baggage screened. Tells us to mind our own business and stop questioning things we know nothing about. Right. We walk away from that one....
On return we pop into the police station and have a chat - excellent bunch of guys, but they told us their responsibility for security stops at the airport perimeter. Speak to the BAA security manager they suggest and say they will do the same. Try to have a chat with the BAA man... 'not available', 'out to lunch', 'away on a trip', 'come back later'. Hmm..
Write a letter to BAA man. No reply.
Is security any better ? Nahhh... the people in charge don't want to listen. I bet there are hundreds of stories like the one above.
(P.S. I think the razor blades means cut-throat razors, but I suspect that will depend on the person at the x-ray machine on the day
)