See through bags stop terrorists!!!

Readying myself for a flight to Ireland I needed to travel light so crammed what I could into my laptop bag for an over night stay. The only toiletry item I took with me was toothpaste. On arrival at security I took the laptop out of the may bag and put it in the tray, took off my coat off and placed that into a 2nd tray along with my belt (Not the shoes today for some reason) and then placed my bag in another tray. At the same time I opened my bag and took out the toothpaste to place in a tray also.

Now I know you have to place all toiletry items in a small see through bag but I thought this was just to keep the items together I had no idea these bags helped in the detection of strange substances that could be used to take over planes?? I presented the toothpaste to the man helping to feed the X-Ray machine and just said “I only have the one item!”, he replied “It needs to be in a clear bag”. “But it’s just one item!”, “Yes but it still needs to be in a bag!”. Now I was late for my flight and decided that now was not the time to argue and definitely not over a nearly empty tube of toothpaste so when I asked what he wanted me to do I was told “Just put it in your bag”. So I did!

Sure enough, as soon as my bag came out the other side of the X-ray it was pulled to one side for having toiletries in it! After what seemed like 10 mins waiting for a foreign family to empty out all manner of creams, drinks, jams from their bags my bag was brought to be looked at and I told the guy the toothpaste was in the front and that I had been TOLD to put it back in the bag. I may as well of said nothing! Having removed the toothpaste, the bag now needs to be scanned again because I’m guessing that the toothpaste plays havoc with the X-Rays and stops the operator from seeing anything, but this time I was allowed to go on my way.

Now am I being stupid here or does the mystical see through bag perform any other special function and WHY could I not just put the toothpaste in a tray of it’s own! I appreciate the need for security at airports but is there really any need to take away the toothpaste because it wasn’t in a see through plastic bag??????

Answers on a postcard to TheAnti-TerroristMagicalSeeThroughPlasticBag@liverpoolairport.com