If I wanted to bomb an airliner…

Sharm-el-Sheikh Airport - CC / Flickr

…I wouldn’t do it if the airliner were leaving from the UK.

Let me explain.

I’ve recently taken return flights from the UK to Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt (to go diving in Dahab), and my parents have flown to and from Morocco, returning to the UK from Fez.

On the way to Egypt and Morocco we were subject to the normal checks on liquids in our hand luggage, and obliged to bin anything over 100ml, still in response to the 2006 transatlantic bomb plot.

But what about the other way around?

You can take as much liquid as you like (within reason) through security in both Fez and Sharm-el-Sheikh – I took 2 litres of water through, just to test it. Not an explosives check in sight, just a metal detector, and through went my water. Isn’t there something a bit odd about that, as there are some rather unpleasant groups operating in both Egypt and Morocco? If I wanted to bring down an airliner I sure would do it departing from there towards London rather than the other way around.

Then again there are all the fallacies of airport security full stop, not least – as explained by the classic XKCD cartoon – that you could do a whole lot of nasty things with a laptop battery, and with a glass bottle of whisky bought at duty free as well no doubt.