Why are people so compliant to 'authority' figures?

[PaulB]

Thing is, bothersome as it is, I think I'd be more bothered to read the files on the total number of threats that our small isles faces each day from overseas visitors and those coming in on fake UK passports.

I think we'd be surprised at just how many people want to cause the UK harm...each and every day

like it or lump it, this system seems to be working. Much of it is about applying overt security as a form of deterrent.

you dont really expect to just breeze in and out do you?

Of course I really expect to just breeze in and out. And I do mean 'really'.

I think you'd be surprised if you discovered the REAL reasons these draconian regulations are imposed on decent, hard-working people. I'm also surprised at the number of decent, hard-working people who comply with this stuff and say or do nothing about it. Why put up with being treated as suspicious for having the temerity to want to escape the grim weather for a bit of a break?

If there really are people who 'want to cause the UK harm....each and every day' I can't see coming in on an aeroplane having much chance of success there, do you? Their excuse on posters around the 'interrogation suite' area had nothing at all to do with people wanting to cause harm but were all about immigration. Well I don't know about you but I'm not an immigrant, or a wannabe-immigrant to my own country but I have to put up with being a de-facto suspect because I want to travel.

I don't like it and want people to begin to demand their rights are respected so we stop being controlled in this dictatorial mind-controlling way.

 

[400bhp]

Rant about traffic jams too.

Won't change a thing but will bring you closer to a coronary.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Good luck with that Paul!

Whilst the current paranoia with security continues, I don't see much chance of anything changing, and for the record, I don't like being treated like some sort of criminal either. Hopefully things should die down now, now that the 'Lympics are over and everything, but unfortunately, I think the damage has been done and it will take a good few years yet before anyone truly relaxes.

 

[jonny jeez]

I can't see coming in on an aeroplane having much chance of success there, do you? .

thanks for proving my point then.

 

[jonny jeez]

Well I don't know about you but I'm not an immigrant, or a wannabe-immigrant to my own country but I have to put up with being a de-facto suspect because I want to travel.
.

Besides, whilst I appreciate this winds you up you have to look at it from the other perspective.

How do we KNOW you are not an immigrant or wannabe...are we supposed to know just by the kindly look on your face, should we just trust you to wander through immigration because you look a bit British.

Its the price of travel. Along with never being able to wear lace up shoes on a plane for fear of holding up the queue at immigration.

(edit) Oh and its not mid controlling, no one is trying to programme you into believing you are something or other, they just want to check you are for real ( whilst they can) before letting you disappear into the car park, never be seen again.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

If you like to get yourself arrested, bum raked and then deported, then be my guest. Most people however just want to get through customs with the minimum of fuss, that's all.

 

[swee'pea99]

I think the damage has been done and it will take a good few years yet before anyone truly relaxes.

One of the very real problems with this, I fear, is that there doesn't tend to be any 'relaxation'. There's a very definite ratchet effect. 'Normality' becomes redefined. At a new level that favours the control-meisters.

Just a few weeks ago I was doing some circuits round Regents Park with 'er indores, and at one point on the circuit we passed some leafy entrance, sprinkled with those paramilitary-type policemen you now see quite often on the streets of London, touting sub-machine guns. I mentioned to her how stunned I was the first time I saw a British cop wearing a holstered gun at an airport. And now here we are a couple of decades on, and Uzi-touting plod barely raises an eyebrow.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Oh dear! Good job it wasn't me working for the magazine. That Customs officer would get straight onto his walky-talky and ask for backup.

Truth is we were staying with a horror writer in Boston before driving to Washington to stay with an ex-C.I.A chief so that we could go to the Obama inauguration. But I left those details out.

I wrote a book about that journey, it was a bit shoot though.

 

[G2EWS]

Hi Paul,

First let me say I respect your views and find them interesting. Also the comments from others.

Having served in the forces and worked in the Middle East as a civilian I have no problems whatsoever with being checked. In fact it pleases me to be searched when I come through with some serious camera equipment. It means they are doing their job properly.

Yes, flight is used by terrorists as history has proven time and time again. So being careful with any nationality is surely the right thing to do? And I always thank the people who have to do this job, as already mentioned it is not a pleasure for them to hold anyone up, they have a job to do and get on with it.

In WW2 we submitted to being governed by a totalitarian regime*. It became part of our culture. Just Keep Calm and Carry On (© Ministry of Information, for whom George Orwell worked before writing '1984').

*It was 'for our own good', of course.

If you want to see how bad things where then read 'The Road To Wigan Pier' and 'Down and Out In Paris & London'.

An interesting insight to the state of the country and how Orwell saw it. The government sponsored him and then refused to pay for his report, hence the books. Two very good reads! Down and Out, might put you off eating in a restaurant again though!!

Regards

Chris

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

One of the very real problems with this, I fear, is that there doesn't tend to be any 'relaxation'. There's a very definite ratchet effect. 'Normality' becomes redefined. At a new level that favours the control-meisters.

Relaxation at the new level then. A downgrade to only mild gun toting paranoia.

 

[ArDee]

Not at all, I mis-read your post and thought you were saying that entrance into the USA was un-hindered! The first time I went was with a writer friend, when he was asked which magazine he wrote for he very sheepishly told them he wrote for a magazine called 'Terroriser'.

A colleague of mine was put in isolation for 6 hours. When arriving in the states he had a cold and was looking a bit white and spiteful and sniffing. When the immigration officer asked him what was wrong, he said he had "Man Flue". Within 90 seconds he was whisked off by 2 security guards who locked him in an isolation room; until, he was able to explain what "Man Flue" was.

Mind you that was still quicker than the queue last time I past through Atlanta - well not quite, I had 4 hour 30 minute between planes and it took 3 hour 45 minutes of that to get through immigration. Obviously the Americana chap who started the slow hand clap cause he had to wait 45 minutes at Heathrow has never entered the US as a visiting foreigner.

The last time I went through a smaller “international” airport in the US – it has one international a day – the Americans getting off the plane were allowed through immigration first. The visiting foreigners had to wait until all Americans had been processed before the staff moved to the booths for visitors.

 

[Drago]

I'm always a good boy cos I don't want a fist cocooned in a rubber glove shoved up my bottom.

 

[Archie_tect]

Secret is to ask for assistance... my elderly aunt has had a hip replaced but can walk as fast and as well as me... she always gets assistance and gets looked after really well, everywhere she goes.

 

[fossyant]

Don't talk to me about getting into the USA. A full 747 jumbo turns up, they have about 4 or 5 staff to deal with everyone at Orlando International. No joke, over 2 hours to get through.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Secret is to ask for assistance... my elderly aunt has had a hip replaced but can walk as fast and as well as me... she always gets assistance and gets looked after really well, everywhere she goes.

I can concur on that one. need a wheelchair and you get whisked through without issues, as does anyone else with you (and your oversized luggage (bikes) turn up really fast as well) - also got me free upgrades to 1st class because they needed to have me as close to the front of the airplane as possible and with the most leg room. Seats A1 & A2