Keep Security Checks On Shoes!

Martin Broughton, the head of British Airways has attacked requirements at UK airports to remove shoes for security.

I think checks on shoes should be maintained. It is a simple precaution that helps to keep people safe when flying. A metal detector is not going to detect plastic explosives for the simple reason that they are plastic. It is just a simple precaution; it's not like you are being asked to take off your clothes.

More significantly, there is something deeply ironic about having to remove shoes at airports that makes a wonderful moral point.


The ability to enable people to defy gravity is one of mankind's greatest achievements. The power to make a mass of metal, carrying a cargo of men and women fly higher than the birds is a true wonder. Airports are the height of our civilization, places that enable transport across the globe, a phenomena undreamed of in previous centuries. Yet in those very places, we must humble ourselves by removing shoes. At the airport we all find our common humanity. Great and small, rich and poor must all stand in stocking and bare feet. There is something wonderfully levelling about this.

In my opinion, people who make a fuss about having to take their shoes off at airport security need more of a sense of humour.