The Triumph of Terminal 5

The British Airports Authority have decreed that all users for domestic flights of the new fifth terminal at Heathrow will have to be fingerprinted.

I have no idea how a Spanish owned private company can make such demands, but it seems they can, and of course new Labour goes along with them. Saturdays Telegraph Travel had an excellent article by Nigel Rumfitt pointing out yet another step towards the database state. And as we know, with governments databases are about as secure as an old garden shed with a faulty lock.

To quote Rumfitt:

"Would any recent terrorist outrage have been prevented by ID cards or fingerprint records? If it would, why bring in vital security measures by the back door and confine them to domestic flights?"

Comments

[Duncan Money]

I remember hearing some excitable PR woman on the radio that day gushing that the opening of Terminal 5 would put Heathrow and London on the map.

Obviously it's been known as a provincial backwater somewhere in the south of England until now.