Baggage Ryanair

lisyloo

why are we still doing this in the UK when almost all the flights heading INTO UK airspace contain toothpaste in handbaggage?

I agree with you that it seems a bit crazy.
If you were a terrorist it wouldn't be rocket science to work out that you need to get on a flight IN rather than a flight OUT.

However I would postulate that the reason it's inconsistent is that the UK authorities have NO authority about security in other countries whereas they DO think it's necessary.

The problem is that if they don't implement something and there is a disaster then they will be criticised so it's a bit of a lose lose situation for them.
People will criticise (and die) if they don't do their job properly.
But if they do then people will criticise because of the inconvenience.

My husband travels quite a bit on short journeys and it's a pain for him because he has to check in luggage just for toiletries (he could shop for them but he he doesn't want to buy toothpaste twice a week and doesn't always have time on one night trips).
However if it is necessary then I think we would all rather have the inconvenience than the deaths.

peterbaker

lisyloo wrote:

However if it is necessary then I think we would all rather have the inconvenience than the deaths.

I was inclined to agree with you in August, but a number of the foreign governments not wasting toothpaste include Denmark, one of my old favorites. They of course have an Islamist problem same as us, but they only bin your toothpaste if you are traveling to America!

I suppose if you look at it cooly, if you are a terrorist on a plane taking off from one of the London airports and you are a novice navigator, it is a bit easier to navigate to Big Ben or Canary Wharf because you are starting off in the right city and are already at low altitude, but seriously, that isn't so different to waiting until an inbound flight starts to decend into London on the way back. Although again if you were a novice, you might be expected to be slightly more prone to breaking the aeroplane before you got to your target - a la Flight 93.

However, the Home Office and Department for Transport and well lets face it, the whole flippin' government, are in such disarray right now that I doubt they are even capable of joined up thinking on even that simplistic level!

The Danish government will of course have quickly worked out that you'd have to be a very smart navigator indeed to hit the Little Mermaid from low altitude or not (they've moved it a bit to stop people damaging it - better not say where to or the terrorists will all be readjusting their hand held GPS!). So yes, that may explain why there has been perceptively no change when you go through security on the way back to UK from there!

peterbaker

Just thought I'd better add a quick update to this thread although I am sure it must have been mentioned on other threads by now:

Hand Baggage rules (laws) throughout EU plus a couple or three other countries were standardised since my last post. It basically means that the easygoing attitude that had continued in DK and many other countries was tightened considerably so that you have to put max 100ml toothpaste / deodorants etc in the max 1 litre sealable transparent bag ready for inspection if asked by security when you travel from there just the same as when you travel from UK.