Originally Posted by Jagboi

I think the OP needs to be less judgemental toward his fellow passengers. He doesn't know their situations, or why they are at the airport. They could have come off a long haul flight and their bodies are telling them it's the middle of the night and they should be asleep. The airport they have come from could have had very different security practices ( shoes on or off, electronics in or out of bags etc). LHR is a major transit point, many passengers may not be able to read or comprehend English. Nobody wants to be shouted at by security, so we muddle through as best we can.

The passengers the OP holds with such disdain may be experiencing a stressful situation and are not at the airport because they want to be. As an example, a friend of mine's Father went to Thailand for a medical procedure. Something went horribly wrong and my friend got a phone call in the middle of the night saying that they didn't think his father was going to last long and if he wanted to see him one last time he better get on a plane to BKK.

My friend lives in Canada, so BKK is not just around the corner! I think it was close to 24 hours to get there. So he called his brother (and woke him up) who lives a few hours away and they booked tickets. My friend lives on a farm a few hours drive from the nearest international airport and was in the middle of calving season. He had to leave his wife and their 2 pre-school aged children to run the farm and deal with newborn calves while he was gone for an unknown length of time.

While he was transiting some airport in Asia and not knowing if he was in time to see his Father alive I'm sure the last thing on his mind was arranging his belongings to use the minimum number of trays, and making sure they were stacked neatly at the end of the belt! I can guarantee that if some self appointed sergeant major thought the security belt was his private parade square and started baking at my friend like he was a new recruit it wouldn't end well.

So perhaps some consideration for your fellow traveller who may not be 100% focused on arranging trays and not exactly sure what the procedures are at T5?