It would seem that the War On Global Footwear is over. The last two Thursdays have seen me going through LHR Terminal 1 without having to remove my shoes.

Presumably Al-Quaeda sent BAA a note, saying

Righteous Al-Quaeda Brethren in Jihadi Alliance under The Most Holy One to Western Materialistic Fascists, Greeting.

We promise no longer to attack your Western aggressor aviation industry by means of the bombs hidden in Shoes, honest we do. Therefore please call off the security shoe-removing behaviour which is causing us all to spend too long in Airports.

Yours in Faith
Osama

The thing is, the security people at LHR swore blind that there'd never been a global 'Shoes Off' policy; just a random sampling incidence. Despite the surrounding Take your shoes off signs, and my observation that everyone had to do it for every flight for a period of 3 months or more. Believe who you like on this.

Oh, and apparently, one scanner is still requiring all shoes off, while another isn't. But I didn't spot the All Shoe-bomb carrying terrorists are kindly requested to use Scanner 1 signs.

Update 26 Oct

War on Footwear back on, sadly. Presumably Al Queda were just on half term.

Oh, also LHR now have a War on Loading Your Own Tray.

Perhaps I'm just missing it — perhaps it's not a War on Terror, but a War on Catching Your Flight...