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Are you feeling safe, Birmingham?

· How very odd!

With the newly rigorous airport security, that is.

(Thanks to the ever-reliable The Register.)

September 12th, 2006 |

8 comments to Are you feeling safe, Birmingham?

  • mandrill
    September 12, 2006 at 11:53 am

    I’ve got a marylin manson t-shirt which says “There’s no time to discriminate…” on the front and “…hate every *expletive* that gets in your way”. I can get away with wearing it in front of my mum but only because the font is quite gothic and hard to read. I doubt I’d be allowed it on a plane though.
    We’re going to hell, and the worst thing is that its beige.

  • Nigel Sedgwick
    September 12, 2006 at 12:50 pm

    One should always take one’s opportunities of self publicity; especially when offered on a plate with negligible downside.

    It’s even better when the Government both looks and is being stupid (for that’s who it is that permits and actively encourages this sort of over-zealous behaviour).

    Best regards

  • Francis
    September 12, 2006 at 2:17 pm

    A manual trackback to my blog where I contrast this story with one from the US.

    I should note that I actually find the picture ID requirement equally ludicrous btu that is by the by

  • guy herbert
    September 13, 2006 at 7:38 am

    Thanks for that Francis. The “Nobody checked my ID!” story gloriously illustrates how security theatre is embedded in many people’s minds, how they positively demand to be numbered and surveilled for irrelevant bureaucratic purposes. If it is evident you pose no threat to the aircraft, then why should anyone care what your name is or what name you travel under when you fly?

    By what logic are readily x-rayable string instruments and suits of clothes barred from the cabin, but opaque laptops permitted? I can only guess that it is a psychological tactic, and that being bullied by officials, and seeing others so bullied, and therefore being reassured of a common, established (low) place in the group heirarchy, makes the conformist many feel secure in the social situation, which is confounded with a significant decrease in the already negligible physical risk.

  • Nick M
    September 13, 2006 at 11:06 am

    Guy,

    You are 100% right. It is theatre.

    I listened to the Jeremy Vine show on R2 yesterday and they had Julian Lloyd-Webber utterly fecked off because he could no longer book his cello the seat next to him. The musical instrument ban is ridiculous. I have never hijacked a 767 with an oboe but I suspect it is a tall order even with Allah on your side (or even playing in the first violins).

    What shocked me was that there were a number of callers supporting this insanity. One suggested that you could work plastique into the structure of the violin. He didn’t go into details of the detonator. He obviously isn’t a student of the hydrodynamics of explosions. Another suggestion was that musicians could leave their Strads behind and hire an instrument when they got wherever they were going. Jesus H Christ!

  • Howard R Gray
    September 13, 2006 at 1:02 pm

    I had my shoes removed at Las Vegas a while back. Just as well that they had Odor Eaters installed in them after a week in LA heat. The only thing they didn’t do was check which side I dress.

    The T shirt incident is just another example of JOBS-WORTH behaviour. The petty Hitler mentality of micro-fascism is alive an well and operates mindlessly true to form.

    When I read about this I have to say that I laughed, and laughed, and nearly fell off my trolley.

    Not even Monty Python could invent this scene.

    Nuff said.

  • Alan K. Henderson
    September 14, 2006 at 5:41 am

    Welcome to the bungle, it gets worse here every day…

  • chris taylor
    September 16, 2006 at 9:12 am

    Approaches to security – contrast and compare:

    To enter the USA – fingerprinted, photographed, removed shoes, bags opened and checked.

    To enter Universal Studios – fingerprinted

    To check bag in locker at Universal Studios – fingerprinted

    To leave USA – passport scanned, removed shoes, bag opened and checked

    To enter UK- passport glanced at by bored official and waved through towards customs. Walked through empty customs room declaring “Anyone at home? and “I may be a terrorist – anyone interested?”

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