Last updated at 12:26, Thursday, 17 May 2012

Once I got over the shock of being able to travel abroad and fly on a plane higher than the clouds, I started to hate airports.

Don’t get me wrong, I love travel, especially abroad and I still get foolishly excited, I just hate the queues and the waiting, the awful seats and the even worse food.

But I have no sympathy for people like Joan Collins who apparently is still alive and complaining about how long it takes to get through passport control.

She Tweeted her disgust at having to queue with ‘thousands’ of other passengers when she returned to Heathrow from a trip to Los Angeles and urged Home Secretary Theresa May: “Listen up Ms. May – need more officers!”

True, there have been ridiculously huge queues of people trying to clear passport control at Heathrow and other London airports.

But I’d rather queue for an hour there so checks are made to at least try to ensure we’re not letting criminals or terrorists into the country, than wave planeloads of passengers through.

The simple reason is that we haven’t got enough border control staff to cope with the passengers. We’re in a recession. Cuts have been made by the Government in staff numbers everywhere.

Should the number of border control workers at our airports staffing take priority over health or social workers?

Should we make sure that our holidaymakers, especially Lady Collins don’t have to wait too long for security clearance, rather than ensure there are enough police on the beat or that there is adequate care of our elderly?

I wouldn’t appreciate having to queue for an hour to get through customs control returning from a holiday, but I understand the reason behind it more than the excuse for getting us to the airport two hours ahead of check-in.

Why do we have to arrive at the airport so we can check-in two hours before the plane takes off?

No reason other than we get so bored that we eat and drink and shop to keep ourselves entertained and top up the earnings of the companies that run our airports. That’s what Joanie should be moaning about.

First published at 11:24, Thursday, 17 May 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk