re. UK airport security

steeljack · 02-09-2006, 02:23

ok, can someone explain to me why when two days ago I was transiting through Heathrow airport on my way back to the States from a trip to Germany all the security personnel I encountered between termals 2 and 3 with one exception were non-native born Brits, the machine-gun carrying police all seemed native born but the guys operating the scaning machines and doing the "pat-downs' all had accents ,maybe I was being a tad over-sensitive but in this day and age I wonder about all the stuff the British and US Govts are putting out and if they are really serious about the Islamic threat to "our" way of life .....not that any politican would be seen dead on a commercial flight...pardon the pun

mani · 02-09-2006, 03:43

there's a long standing joke amongst asians that the reason they built heathrow where they did is so that people coming over would feel just as home with all the nigerians, somalians and asians living neaby

i dont know if u recall when that company went on strike about the foods for british airways they were all asians and it all comes down to one factor

cheap labour. with the large pool of non-skilled workers nearby - the somalians and the asians who have come over in the last 5-10 years are more than happy to work for that minimum wage whilst local people arent.

i dont doubt that the recent threat wasnt real but i do think te govt is gettin bad habits from the usa which has terror threats every other day.

steeljack · 02-09-2006, 03:51

mani....bit of a sidebar to original topic ...... ...some Americans think that Windsor castle was built near to Heathrow so the royals wouldn't have to travel to far to catch a plane.......true....Doh

mani · 02-09-2006, 04:07

*L*

well to be honest there is some truth in that... prepare to be bored...

long time ago i cant remember which king ordered that his kingdom be measured out etc and they asked from where shall we measure he went to one of the nearest high mounds and said here - a mound of heathland and the nearest village was heathrow... so geographically back in the day b4 sat nav etc that was what everything was measured into - not sure if that had a part to play when heathrow airport was built...

garinda · 02-09-2006, 11:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by steeljack

not that any politican would be seen dead on a commercial flight...pardon the pun

Thankfully all the politicans who recently went over to Germany for the World Cup took commercial flights. Never the less it still cost many, many thousands of pounds, according to recently published expenses.

I don't see what the ethnictisity of the security guards has to do with anything. Hopefully all airport personnel will have been heavily vetted, and let's not forget that one of the recently arrested suspected terrorists was a 'native' Briton, ie: white.

cashman · 02-09-2006, 11:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by garinda

Thankfully all the politicans who recently went over to Germany for the World Cup took commercial flights. Never the less it still cost many, many thousands of pounds, according to recently published expenses.

I don't see what the ethnictisity of the security guards has to do with anything. Hopefully all airport personnel will have been heavily vetted, and let's not forget that one of the recently arrested suspected terrorists was a 'native' Briton, ie: white.

hopefully nothing, but vetting procedures/ security checks seem to me to leave a lot to be desired,i know its nigh impossible to stop determind people, but can see how it can be un-nerving.

garinda · 02-09-2006, 11:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by cashman

hopefully nothing, but vetting procedures/ security checks seem to me to leave a lot to be desired,i know its nigh impossible to stop determind people, but can see how it can be un-nerving.

I totally agree, airport security still leaves a lot to be desired, as can be seen by recent TV exposes. However remarking that security staff aren't 'native' to Britons just fuels fear, and is one of the reasons I started the Trilingual Britain thread.

cashman · 02-09-2006, 13:24

i ain't racist at all rindy as you probably know- but in all honesty i think the staff in those areas SHOULD be native britons, its not perfect but to me it lessens the odds.and in these times i'm all for that. digressing slightly we had a horrible experiance with such staff in miami- and they were all cuban.

bullseyebarb · 03-09-2006, 16:52

We should conduct security the way El Al does. They profile people.