Originally Posted by
EsherFlyer
No, you're understanding me, but as I never connect in the UK (LHR is my very local airport) and hardly ever travel with checked luggage I was indeed assuming the US and Canadian model I've experienced was a standard. It seems to make sense in terms of better filtering what is arriving in the country, but hey ho.
One of the benefits of being a little ole' island just off the north coast of Europe is that all our airports have customs. So you can through connect bags from any place in the world to any UK airport without having to pick them up en-route. So if the bags are tagged EDI, that's where you next see them and pick them up.
(You'll notice some bags tags have green edges to them. Those tags indicate they've been issued domestically or intra-EU and so don't have to be checked for customs. The tags issued elsewhere (including IAD) wont have those green edges, and so will show their extra-EU origins).