Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Just another flight from Heathrow

Greetings from Omaha, Nebraska, where the temperature is colder than it was in the Arctic Circle. I flew out from Heathrow with Delta Airlines, via Detroit. However, I missed my connecting flight because we were held on ground at Heathrow for two hours while some Asians were kicked off the plane. There were seven of them, situated in different parts of the cabin and apparently passengers, or a passenger, tipped off the trolley dollies that these darkies were “a bit odd” and “behaving aggressively.” So they were frogmarched off the plane, all of them, and then everyone on the plane had their seat covers torn off by a squad of security guards and were asked that usual stupid question again: did you pack this carry-on luggage yourself? No, I didn’t, I got Elton John to do it for me. Elton and David came round and packed the bags.

I assume the Asians were totally innocent of any crime, other than simply being Asian – otherwise we’d have heard about it by now. And in which case their inconvenience – and humiliation – was rather greater than that which afflicted the rest of us. I do wonder if pure spite isn’t as compelling a motive for this new “vigilance” as a concern about terrorism.

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