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I knew things were bad at Heathrow but… Earlier this evening I was reading the on-line Telegraph and clicked on a link about a Taliban leader being killed in a NATO air strike in what I assumed was going to be Afghanistan… and to my surprise I ended up at an article about the interminable queues at British airports! So this NATO air strike against the Taliban was where exactly?
I looked again a bit later and the links were appropriately sorted out but as someone who has just passed through the nightmare that is Heathrow, for one glorious moment I thought some public spirited member of the armed forces stuck in one of what Adriana calls “the security theatre queues” had snapped and called in a long over due air strike on Terminal 2.
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Lucky you go your baggage with British Airways. Some horrific tales are being reported about BA ‘losing’ baggage only for it appear at auctions several weeks later minus any items of value that have been removed, presumably by the baggage handlers. Small wonder the alternative place names are still ‘Thiefrow, Gatnick, Looton and Standanddeliverstead’.
Lucky indeed that you got your baggage back at all through Heathrow these days. There are some horrific tales are being reported about BA ‘losing’ baggage only for it appear at auctions several weeks later minus any items of value that have been removed, presumably by the baggage handlers. Small wonder the alternative place names are still ‘Thiefrow, Gatnick, Looton and Standanddeliverstead’. It is also somewhat ironic that the more stringent the security we see at Heathrow (average 1 hour 28 minutes wait for security checks) the more chances there are that your baggage will be lost.
HRH Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, spoke to a group in the US last fall. BA managed to lose even his bags (much to the delight and chagrin of some of the Brit guests at the event).
(and yes, I know there are a lot of republicans around these parts).
Terminal 2 actually is to be demolished once they open Terminal 5. An air strike would be a nice way of doing it.
I actually heard on the Today Programme the other day that business travellers are choosing not to fly from Heathrow in favour of taking the Eurostar to Paris or Brussels and flying from there (this guy reports hearing it on the World Service too). I actually thought of doing that last year when the security theatre was at an absolute fever pitch over the War on Slightly Moist Objects and Electronic Devices, because I didn’t want the baggage snatchers to get their hands on my laptop.
I definitely fly less as a result of the security theatre. When people discuss the “costs” of security, the cost they usually don’t account for is the number of people who choose not to travel as a result of the increased security. I’m certainly more afraid of the loss of freedoms from government goons in uniform than I am from terrorism. The latter only affects – at most – thousands, while government evil/incompetence affects absolutely everybody.
An air strike on Term 4 would be a better option. What a fucking disaster.
Fortunately, flying into Blighty direct from Dallas means Gatwick, which, even though a zillion miles outside London, is still the superior airport. (I actually love taking the high-speed nonstop train from Gatwick — it gives me a chance to enjoy the countryside, and to “settle down” after the trans-Atlantic flight.)
The only bad thing to happen to Gatwick was the moving of the rental car counters to a remote location — seems like everyone’s doing it these days, damn it — but other than that, LGW is just fine.