ID cards pilot scheme for pilots!

It seems all the current policy stuff coming out from the government is Jacqui Smith's. This time she's on again about ID cards. The good city of Manchester is the first city where people can sign up for an ID card, should they wish to spend £60 on one. It is voluntary for Mancunians but it is not so for pilots at Manchester Airport. They will have to have one as a condition of employment. So will all the airport workers. This compulsion also applies at London City Airport. It the febrile mind of the Home Secretary, this compulsion is so that terrorists don't apply for jobs. What planet is she from? Does she seriously think Abu Hamza, the hook-handed horror of Islamic fundamentalism, is going to apply to work at Manchester Airport as a baggage handler? "Could you help me with my bags, my good man?" asks Margaret Rutherford type to the eager-to-please Hamza. Pantomime stuff?

Any person seeking to blow up the airport is going to recruit "home grown" terrorists who are "clean skins". No ID card is going to stop that!

And how come these cards won't be effective for five years. I would suggest to Mancunians not to bother. You'd be paying £60 for nowt!

When two planes collide

It's something that is not unlikely to happen, although the likelihood of such a thing happening is not usual. However, today it happened. Two planes had a minor collision at Manchester Airport due to being too close to each other on the taxiway. An airport spokesman said that "this kind of thing shouldn't happen" and I thought they never really do.

However, David Learmount, of news service Air Transport Intelligence, said incidents of aircraft being damaged at airports were relatively common. "It's a serious problem in terms of expenses, but it's very rare that it involves people getting hurt." I then thought that maybe we don't hear of the bangs and bumps unless they are so blatant as to be publicly witnessed, as today. If Mr.Learmount says it's "relatively common", and he should know, does this imply that pilots are not that good at driving a plane, more the expert at flying the things?