PaperTiger (hidden doofus), I don't quite understand how you can defend not security screening people properly.
This whole talk of trust is one that I think is irrelevant. I know that I am 100% trustworthy and would never do anything to intentionally harm an aircraft and its occupants, and I am sure everyone else reading this (at least I hope so!?) feels the same way. Fact is though, you don't know me and I don't know you. Therefore nobody but the person themselves really knows what they are or are not capable of. For these reasons EVERYONE should be screened thoroughly on all occasions. I know I am a lot happier to be checked thoroughly than let through somewhere lightly because of a pass I hold. To me this only says that many more people in a similar position to myself have been given an equally un-thorough check - and these are people who could actually be capable of anything.
I still think we are lucky in the UK though that we are still so much more thorough than the US. I was gob-smacked by the amazing failures in security I witnessed only a couple of months ago whilst visiting. The security checks performed would have been shocking if I had seen them post lockerby, but to see them so recently was unbelievable. Without going into detail it resulted in the bags (hold baggage) of some of my travelling partners being flaged up to be manually searched after being x-rayed. As I watched I saw the bags in question go down the shoot on their way to the aircraft. The man then called my partners up to check their bags but could not find them. He asked his colleagues, they couldn't find them, then they let my companions go (and more importantly the bags) with no thorough investigation. I know there was nothing in these bags as these companions were my relatives (but that isn't always enough is it?!). However nobody else could have known this. And for whatever reason, whether there was something to raise suspision or it was simply a random check, the security, or at least what little of it there was, failed dismally.
Enough carry on, my point is simple. We really need to get on top of this security issue, both in the UK and across the world. Simple fact is, whilst there are loonies out there, and there probably always will be, complacency is not an issue - or do we need to be shown again in very simple terms before we learn.
