[Leica] Security in U.K.

[wvl <wvl@marinternet.com>]

> > Despite the horror stories presented here, I have experienced some
> amazing lack of vigilance. In 1985 (one year after the Brighton Bomb) I
> was allowed past the barriers and into Downing street without being
> searched where I then stood about 15 feet from the Prime Minister and
> took pictures, often digging around inside a rather large camera bag
> that really could have held anything (even a Leica).


In1996 I was walking along the Thames in London at night and looking for
a public toilet. As matters got more urgent I approached a side door of
the Houses of Parliment and asked the bobby if I could use the toilet.
He said nobody could enter the door because it was a police passage and
Nelson Mandela was speaking to Parliment within. However, he made an
exception and let me use the police toilet which was down the hall. I
was allowed unsupervised entry and my backpack was ignored. I wandered
around  a while without encountering anybody in the passages. I could
have been Guy Fawkes!

At Heathrow, however, I have always encountered serious security and
once had to submit to checked luggage search because a stainless steel
developing tank tooked a lot like a land mine on the scanner.

Bill Lawlor