Farm Diary

Arriving hours before the flight in order to check-in (not available in this instance on-line), we found that we were not the only ones to arrive really early in order to avoid long queues.

It did get much worse later, but as our queue was shorter, they only had three people checking us in (later they had seven), so it took just as long. Thanks for that.

Next came the security check, with more queues. The fraught family in front of us with the small baby were subject to an intense search, including the inevitable question about liquids.

The baby's bottle was shown, and to my astonishment the father was made to drink some of the baby's milk! Now two things sprang to mind immediately; a 'suicide bomber' would not be too fussed about a mouthful of any liquid, and all this harassment might be worthwhile had I not read European reports stating that all this security has no meaningful effect at all, and seems to be there to put citizens at ease.

Furthermore, did I not see a group of scruffy youngsters standing on top of a plane recently with a bloody great big 'Greenpeace' flag? How did they get there?

For full feature and a viewpoint on farming in Australia, see West Sussex Gazette March 12.