My latest Guardian column just went live: “Time to fight security
superstition.” It talks about the growing number of strictures on
talking about, recording, and arguing with the security measures in our
society, and how this makes us all less safe:
We can’t mention terrorist attacks at the airport while we’re being
subjected to systematic anti-dignity depredations; your bank won’t let
you open an account with a passport – you need to supply a laser-printed
utility bill as well (“to prevent money laundering” … you can just hear
Osama’s chief forgers gnashing their teeth for lack of a piece of A4).
The superstitions that grip airport checkpoints and banks are themselves
a threat to security, because the security that does not admit of
examination and discussion is no security at all.
If terrorists are a danger to London, then the only way to be safe is to
talk about real threats and real countermeasures, to question the
security around us and shut down the systems that don’t work.
