Yesterday, Sunday April 22, I went through security at London Stansted (STN), having last flown through there 2 years ago.

The line was fairly long, but it moved VERY quickly. They had a video running with instructions, but I had removed my belt before it got to the part about not removing belt/shoes unless asked - never mind, the scout belt has a big buckle and usually alarms.

I didn't realise they wanted hand luggage in the bins too, but was politely asked to "just pop it in here, please".

I alarmed the WTMD (or got a random), and so had a patdown. It was very light, _really_ minimally intrusive and quick. Just enough to have a 2 sentence "conversation" about the scout t-shirt I was wearing.

Next stop: my bag got selected for a swab. "Who's is this bag?" "Mine" "I'm just going to run a quick test" That last statement is as long as it took her to run the swatch of fabric across my bag. As I picked up my stuff from the other bin, my bag was cleared.

Total time from entering the queue to being cleared: 12 minutes. The same length queue 2 years ago took about 50 minutes.

Everyone was quiet and polite about the whole thing, I watched them explain slowly and with gestures for non-native speakers, even the ones that kept going through the WTMD too close together (several times, approaching the point where you think about candid camera).

Yes, I did look back, noted the lane number and completed a comment card (actually, I just went to the supervisor's desk to tell them, but he gave me a card, and I did put it down too).

Now, some will say that this is how it should be, and I agree. But one can still let people know when they get things right.

DanishFlyer