Comment is free: Panic stations
Christian Wolmar (British railways commentator) on the ridiculous security arrangements at the new St Pancras railway station in London, the terminal for trains to Paris:
St Pancras, which reopened today, is a wonderful station but its atmosphere is ruined by the ridiculously onerous security arrangements forced on the architects by Transsec, the shadowy and unaccoubtable government organisation responsible for security on the transport network, which spends much of its time trying to prevent bicycles being parked at stations. A huge 9ft glass barrier surrounds the trains, and crams the crowds into a relatively small concourse. Worse, a very large area between the ends of the platform and the barrier has been left empty in the event, according to one of the architects with whom I spoke today, that people need to be cleared off the train but not allowed to go downstairs to the departure and arrival areas. But surely, I asked, would they not simply open the doors in the glass fence. No, apparently not, in case there was a suspected terrorist, and in any case all these people would be entering Britain without the chance to check their passports (which in any case are checked before they board the train).
All this crazy security for a railway station when, next door at King's Cross, there is none at all! There is no evidence that Eurostar trains face a greater security threat than any other rail service, except the security service's obsessive belief that terrorists like to hit targets that would maximise publicity. However, as both the 7/7 London and Madrid bombers showed, blowing up a few ordinary suburban or underground trains certainly gets them on the front pages across the world. Yes, the World Trade Centre attack was particularly spectacular, but terrorists intent on carnage will always find targets - they would not, for example, have to hit a Premiership stadium, but could easily wipe out hundreds of people at a League One ground.
He also notes that if they really are stepping up security, it might be best not to let on. However, there is another issue here, which is why on earth we have vastly more onerous immigration and passport laws for travel to a neighbouring European country than any other European country, and it's about to get worse - from next year or the year after, we will no longer be able to travel unhindered to and from Ireland either, as we have been since the country became independent.
A lot of people don't seem to know this - on the continent, you can simply walk from country to country without a passport, or without any check at all. When I visited Aachen on the German-Dutch border in 1991 or thereabouts, I took a bus to the Dutch border and simply walked over into Vaals, on the Dutch side. There was nothing much to do and I soon just walked back, but the point is made. You cannot do this when travelling from England to France; you have to have a passport, which now costs £100. This is more than double what it cost three years ago, and I do not accept that present circumstances justify it and do not care, frankly. There was an easy way we could have avoided those circumstances, if they exist at all.
It seems that this country always takes the bad things from the European Union - the pointless rules on what can be traded and what can't, for example - and leaves the good, namely the personal freedom other European citizens enjoy. The reason seems to be the perception that we are an island nation and that this is somehow something we should cherish, when in fact it belongs to the past when we controlled a lot of other people's countries and when we also had overseas white colonies. However, "present circumstances" allow the government additional licence to increase the burdens of security on the public; it allows the government to impress the media that we are neither surrendering to Europe nor letting terrorism happen. The UK has traditionally had a degree of liberty unmatched in Europe, and we have surrendered that within the space of a few years just because of a few bombs. It's ridiculous.