Is it safe to assume that a responsible official at the Civil Aviation Authority is taking urgent steps to remedy
Posted in General on 06. Oct, 2010
Is it safe to assume that a responsible official at the Civil Aviation Authority is taking urgent steps to remedy it ?STEPHEN RYAN Edinburgh Child slavery Sir: I commend wholeheartedly Johann Hari’s thoughtful article “What about the poor workers who make your bargains in the sales?” (26 December). I’m reassured on this final leg of the journey because I know that the tube driver works in a regime where random testing for excessive alcohol is routine – ten years ago, London Underground became one of the first British employers to introduce such testing.The only part of my journey where I cannot have the reassurance which is provided by the random testing of safety-critical staff is the part where I am locked in an aircraft which hurtles through the sky at 400mph, six miles above the ground This seems like a glaring anomaly. The two solutions are not mutually exclusive.I’m not sure which I find more worrying – that Balpa resist random tests, or that they seem to have been successful.TIMOTHY BLAKE London W4Sir: On a routine business trip to London, I travel to Edinburgh airport by bus. I’m reassured on this first leg of the journey because I know that the bus driver works in a regime where random tests for intoxication are the norm.I then fly on a British Airways flight to Heathrow I then complete my journey into central London by tube.
That should not be too much to expect.ROGER WESTLAKE Colchester, EssexSir: No doubt now that the American regime has begun plans to bully the rest of the world into conforming to their idea of security there will be the usual voices complaining about the arrogance of the world’s most powerful nation, and I agree with them.But, has anybody noticed that after a person has passed through all the security checks at an airport and had any nail scissors/files etc. confiscated, they can then walk straight to the duty free shop and buy themselves a Swiss army knife or a bottle of spirits – both of which are far more offensive weapons than the aforementioned manicure tools.DOUGLAS BARNES BristolSir: Why not have armed sky marshals on Easyjet, Ryan Air and other low-cost carriers? If fanatics are intent on seizing planes to crash into prominent buildings surely any airliner with full fuel tanks will do?GRAHAM PERKINS Bromyard, HerefordshireSir: Jim McAusland of the British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) is disingenuous in arguing (Letters, 24 December) that pilots resist random alcohol tests because a peer intervention programme is a more effective way of controlling the problem. Yet these are the very terrorists who have already decided that they are to perish in their planned act of terrorism so deterrence does not enter the equation.If it is unsafe for me to travel on an aircraft armed with a gun why is it supposedly safe for me to travel on the same flight sat next to an armed sky marshal? How will passengers fare when a stray bullet from a sky marshal punctures the fuselage at 30,000 feet? Not too well I fear!The Government’s objective should be to ensure that security checks on employees and passengers at all airports are so tight that it is impossible for armed terrorists to get beyond the departure lounge. We don’t need to be armed, Mr Blunkett, we just need your permission to use our handcuffs lawfully, please.KAREN PINDER Police Inspector Greater Manchester Police Guns and alcohol threaten air travel Sir: Whilst I have never subscribed to the view that Blair is a “Bush poodle” I do find the decision to adopt the American practice of placing armed sky marshals on British flights worrying.As an ordinary member of the public who flies occasionally, the Government expects me to believe that the presence of armed sky marshals will act as a deterrent to terrorists. Automatic restraint on detention would help the police to do a better job.Even before the death of our colleague DC Stephen Oake in Manchester, we were pressing for a change in the Home Office edict which puts the civil liberties and inconvenience suffered by detainees before the threats to the lives of police officers. The Home Office fails to recognise the uncertainty, lack of information and risks that confront officers when dealing with a suspect before an arrest is made.Detention is the most dangerous and risky of all police activities.
We want officers to be able to take control in safety, while they carry out a search and make enquiries into the detainee. The Police Federation of England and Wales believe that when officers detain people for the purposes of a search or for an arrest, then they should have the power to restrain detainees automatically. As the law and Home Office guidelines presently stand we are prevented from making best use of the handcuffs we carry routinely. The Home Office warns police officers that they commit an assault unless they can justify the use of handcuffs.The Home Secretary tells us that there are only three reasons which justify that assault: the arrested person is likely to escape; they are likely to attempt to escape; or they are likely to offer violence. Officers in Greater Manchester Police offer a less drastic solution, but one which we feel would lead to far fewer deaths and injuries to our colleagues. Quite simply, we seek the power to handcuff suspects automatically. Cook saying: “You’ve only give them one kind of stuffing.”39.
Plates being recalled for stuffing from other end of turkey.40. Food going cold by now.More great Christmas moments some other time…
More from Miles Kington. Police officers want to be allowed to handcuff detainees
Police officers want to be allowed to handcuff detainees
Sir: The death of a West Yorkshire police officer (report, 30 December) prompts people to ask whether the police should be armed routinely. You being forced to carve turkey and hand out right portions for everyone.36 Cook saying: “You haven’t give anyone stuffing.”37 All plates being recalled for stuffing.38. You catching sight of yourself in mirror, realising what a twerp you look in paper hat.35. Going desperately through the discarded wrapping paper, piece by piece, looking for the lovely new tie.31 Desperately failing to find it.32 Someone saying to you: “I like your new tie!”33 You remembering you had put the thing on.34. Realising that the lovely new tie someone has given you has already gone missing.30.