ASRAAM:
I suspect that you are a First Officer?
Nowhere did I ever suggest that F/Os were not to be trusted with doing the pre-flight walkaround. If you read my original post it quite clearly states that the Company SOP stated that the Captain carried out this duty. As I said, there was many a dark and stormy night when I would cheerfully have stayed in the warmth of the cockpit.
I also suspect that you are too young to have flown with a Flight Engineer?
You express surprise that I would trust a Flight Engineer to carry out the pre flight inspection. Please understand that this very important task was always done by the Flight Engineer for that was one of the many reasons that he was there. You need to realise that the Flight Engineer sat about two feet behind the two horses arses in front and he got to the scene of the accident about 1 nanosecond after they did. Therefore, he had a great interest in protecting his own future. We trusted them to do their job and I was never ever let down.
Finally, I was quite interested in your statement that checking the bog flap would involve re-connecting the jetway. It is highly unlikely that any of us would even consider doing this but my worry is that you would consider having to re-connect a jetway a problem. Are you worried about what the management might say?
As someone who flew successfully for 50 years or so without breaking anything, do not ever let the fact that you have asked for a jetway to be re-connected affect your decision. If you consider that safety is involved, go for it every time. You would be amazed at how quickly the so-called management melts into the background when you go into print!