So there we were, 30 miles out from home in central London on a bike, at the worlds busiest airport, London Heathrow. Under the tunnel, park the bike in one of the many bike parks, and head towards the spectators gallery (btw, we are not plane spotters, but thought this made a good day out, and avoided the carnival in notting hill).
But it was closed due to 'heightened security reasons'. I wondered what these are and figured that it was probably laziness or something. Then inside the terminal we heard an annoucement saying that open and unopened drinks should not be taken through security to the departure lounges due to 'heightened security'. What on earth can a drink do?
Paul told me that security experts were saying that half the things airports say and do don't actually increase security, but are to make the public feel safer. The drinks thing sounds like that. And it makes people buy a new drink on the other side. Could be the same with the Spectators Gallery - no need for staff if you close it, save some cash.
Then Paul told me that a lot of security firms were going out of business, due to them having to do their job properly. After years of doing slack security and raking in the cash, now they have to do the job properly, they can't make it work financially. I went looking for evidence of this - a flaw in the free market of transport? As a reader of Transport Blog, I was interested to read this article about Securicor losing the job of airport security in some airports in American, and the job being filled by the Government.