Yesterday the Daily Telegraph printed an article on aviation security under the title “What price safety?” We know that much of the content of a newspaper is to fill the columns to make us think we’re getting value for money.
For the last 20 years I’ve been disappointed by most articles … expecting that I’ll find out something valuable about second hand cars or pensions or property or travel destinations.
Most articles entice us with a headline that makes us read on. One of the few articles that I’ve read in its entirety was yesterday’s. It quoted an aviation safety expert who said that he didn’t think security had ever prevented anyone doing anything anywhere, though later in the article he is quoted as saying ” We would have seen far more acts of terrorism if we didn’t have the measures in place that we have now.” No doubt by the time the worried reader gets to that bit he or she has forgotten the first quote.
Now no less a person than Emily Maitlis, a news presenter on the BBC has her doubts about security because she was carted off because of hand cream on the handle of her bag, which had returned a trace of explosive on it. She knew it wasn’t a trace from explosives but that is clearly NOT the point. She would say that wouldn’t she?
Given the choice of boarding a flight where no-one has been through security or one where an old lady has been asked to remove her shoes and empty her handbag, which would you choose? Not which one would you prefer, because I think we’d all prefer that we didn’t have to go through security checks but, which would you choose.
But the best comes from disgruntled passengers.“it’s all to stop the transport of toothpaste across international borders.”
“I can take a tin of corned beef but not red salmon in a tin.”
“They took my jar of marmite.”
My answer to that is, too bad, because what price safety?” they made me feel like a criminal”
