Perhaps because the new security arrangements at Britain’s airports have been life-disruptingly onerous, and because of the high-profile ‘mistakes’ that may or may not have been made by police in other cases, the critical reaction to some of the measures introduced after last week’s alleged explosives plot has been rather swifter than might have been expected. Most interesting so far this analysis of the difficulty of mounting this type of attack. With any luck, someone with chemical training will be in charge of drawing up any permanent security restrictions for air travel, based on a proper risk-analysis, though I for one shall not be holding my breath. If only to instil public confidence, ‘visible’, high-profile and inconvenient rituals will probably become the norm.
Ritual is extremely important in air-travel, perhaps more so for the English than for any other nation. I’ve been on flights operated by non-English-speaking carriers that have still conducted the security briefing entirely in English - the international language of aviation. Top marks, in fact, go to the carrier that, with Germanic and mechanical precision managed to use the words ‘decompression’ and ‘ditching’ in their pre-flight briefing to cover those eventualities to which the native English-speaker alludes with gentle and comforting euphemism.
The reporting in the Times on Tuesday 15th August was particularly good. I recommend especially its leading article and a column that reminded of the terrorist threats of yesteryear. Best of all is this commentary, worth reading in full but summarised neatly in the line:
The best defence against terrorism is good intelligence and police work, not a ban on mineral water.
The problem for politicians is that taking even a small risk may be taking too much. I can’t help suspecting that for all my rationalising and logic as I sit here on the ground, when I’m next watching a stewardess point out emergency exits I’ll be quite irrationally glad that our lords and masters have erred, no doubt irrationally, on the side of inconvenient and even absurd caution. The human condition is a funny thing.