I was at an industry meeting a couple of years ago where someone from Security in one of the larger airlines at LHR confirmed to us that the 'Shoes off Lottery' was indeed supposed to be 'random' with searches sometimes happening and at other times not, and that this kind of unpredictability was deliberate. So it's strange to hear a goon claiming it is a permanent feature of Fastrack.... perhaps he was just saying what he felt would get you to move on.