BAD BOY OF THE WEEK - Airport security officials

Over the past seven days, Big Brother Watch has been inundated with messages from supporters drawing our attention to concerns about the dangers associated with body scanners and the excessive pat-downs those who decline to pass through them are subjected to.

First was the case of the heroic John Tyner who was denied permission to board a flight after cautioning an overly hands-on security guard not to "touch his junk" during what the American Transport Security Administration call a "groin check". 

Secondly, Captain Sully Sullenberger - the pilot who managed to successfully land his aircraft in the River Hudson - came out against body scanners as "unnecessary" and a "radiation risk".

Finally - and most alarmingly - was the case of three year old Mandy Simon who was forced to undergo the terrifying ordeal of having a full body search after already being upset at having seen her teddy bear pass through an x-ray machine.  Despite screaming "stop touching me", security officers continued their search.

So, this week's BAD BOY OF THE WEEK award goes to the legion of security officials the world over who have lost all sense of perspective when it comes to airport security.  Big Brother Watch doesn't blame individual airport security staff (although there are indeed many who use and abuse their powers) but rather the senior officials who enforce these invasive diktats on ordinary air passengers.

Big Brother Watch understands the need for passengers to undergo checks before boarding aircraft.  Of course, for example, it makes sense for passengers to be scanned to check they are not boarding flights with large metal objects which could be knives or guns, yet it goes one step further when airport staff have a licence to terrorise three year old little girls.

As New Jersey State Assemblywoman Valerie Vanieri Huttle said, "We're not talking about eliminating security; we're talking about using security wisely". 

Comments

[Sati Pera]

@Alex

Would you care to comment about this article from The Daily Telegraph about the political objectives of The Tax Payers Alliance? (of which you are an offshoot campaign group)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7993781/TaxPayers-Alliance-seeks-advice-from-Tea-Party-movement-leaders.html

[Alex Deane]

@SP - we have tried to engage with you each time you post comments. Each time, you fail to respond, and then post vaguely/very hostile comments on new posts. Until you actually engage substantively in return, here: http://www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/home/2010/11/wiltshires-anti-speeding-vigilantes.html - the last example of this - there is little point in us going through this rigmarole again.

[Sati Pera]

@Alex

Further to the political objectives of Big Brother Watch and your parent organisation The Taxpayers Alliance. It also sheds a little light as to where most of your money is really coming from and it is not the paypal button on the website as you tried to give the impression.

From The Guardian Oct 2009

The Taxpayers' Alliance, a campaign group that calls for tax and spending cuts and claims to represent the interests of taxpayers, has admitted one of its directors does not pay British tax.

The Guardian has learned that Alexander Heath, a director of the increasingly influential free market, rightwing lobby group, lives in a farmhouse in the Loire and has not paid British tax for years.

The admission, made by Matthew Elliott, the TPA's chief executive and founder, is potentially embarrassing for the Conservative party, which has close links to the group that claims to be "the guardian of taxpayers' money, the voice of taxpayers in the media and their representative at Westminster".

At the Conservative party conference in Manchester this week, the TPA's influence was underlined when David Cameron and George Osborne followed its recommendations for freezing public sector pay and capping civil servants' salaries at the level of the prime minister, unless approved by the chancellor.

Senior Labour figures said the admission that a TPA director does not pay British tax "should ring alarm bells" about the group's influence on the debate on tax and spending. The group has also campaigned against green taxes, quangos and town hall pay.

Heath's status emerged from an investigation into the TPA, which also revealed that the group is heavily funded by a group of businessmen and wealthy donors who also back the Conservatives.

"Mr Heath, a retired teacher, has lived in France since marrying his French wife in 1973," said Elliott in a statement. "He is still a British citizen but he is a French taxpayer (where taxes are higher than in the UK!). He is passionate about the Taxpayers' Alliance." Elliott said Heath returned to the UK for about a fortnight each year and owned no property in Britain.

"The least we can expect for an organisation that purports to represent the interests of British taxpayers is that it is run by people that pay British tax," said Jon Cruddas MP, who said he is one of many Labour MPs concerned about the TPA's growing influence.

"When it emerges that one of the directors doesn't [pay British tax], their motivations seem questionable and alarm bells should start ringing for anyone who comes across the TPA."

He said the organisation's backers suggested there was "a revolving door" between Tory donors and supporters of the TPA, although the group denies it is a front for the Conservatives. The TPA's financial backers include Sir Anthony Bamford, the owner of the JCB digger company, and Tony Gallagher, the owner of Gallagher Estates, both Conservative donors, who with 32 other businessmen have donated about £80,000 to the group through the Midlands Industrial Council.

Malcolm McAlpine, the chief executive of contractor Sir Robert McAlpine, said he had also funded the group. David Alberto, a property developer supplies office space to the group near Westminster worth an estimated £100,000 a year.

The campaign group refuses to publish details of its income or a list of donors, but when pressed, Elliott said the biggest single donation was no higher than £100,000 and its annual income from donations was about £1m. It is a rapid rise for a group which filed accounts for 2005 that showed donations of just £67,547.

The TPA's links to the Conservatives include monthly meetings where speakers have included Eric Pickles, the Conservative party chairman, Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary, and Daniel Hannan, the Tory Eurosceptic MEP who recently claimed the NHS was "a 60-year mistake".

I am not really looking to engage with you, I consider this a public service to those people who may have made the same mistake about Big Brother Watch that I initially did.

[Alex Deane]

@SP - "I am not really looking to engage with you" - well that, at least, is true.

[Blademansw]

@SP I would not care if all the directors of TPA lived on the moon, and were bright green in colour. The organisation highlights waste by our obese government, whether they be labour or the current coagulation of spineless crap which is reputed to contain a breed of person known as a conservative. I frankly see little evidence of Conservatism in this party any more, so I suspect the TPA will still have plenty of meat to chew on. As to BBW, they highlight abuse of power and the ever encroaching jackboot of the statists, of whom I suspect you are one. For this reason I couldn't care less if Alex was a 3 foot tall person from Pluto, currently residing in outer Mongolia. He and his organisation are doing a fair job of discussing these issues.
Keep up the good work Alex, and SP, climb back into you red coloured statist box, you are not welcome here.