Cold Potatoes

Many years ago, at the height of the IRA troubles, I was flying down from Aberdeen to London. Everything in those days was hand searched for bombs, so there were queues at a table where this was done.

The guy in front of me, had a large plastic carrier bag, which he dumped unceremoniously for searching. 'What's that?' The security guard was apprehensive, but not that apprehensive, as the passenger was about sixty and well-dressed.

Whereupon, the passenger opened the bag. 'Seed potatoes! You have the best in the world in Aberdeen and there's a shortage down south!'

On checking, there were laughs all round!

Compare this with what happened last night in Florida, where a girl who joked she had a bomb got arrested.

She was stupid, but she didn't deserved to get locked up! According to the BBC, it looks like it could be six months before she sees a court!

I was speaking to a senior executive of a British company who was so incensed by his treatment on entering the US recently, he nearly made a similar remark.

Perhaps, their idea is to lock-up anybody who might say that America is not the greatest country in the world.

It may be in some ways, but in areas of the environment, trade, human rights and justice, it definitely isn't! It also leads in having the dumbest electoral system in the world, which means that the least worst candidate gets elected.

So don't visit America until they clean their act up. Unless of course someone is going to pay you a large amount of money, which pays for all the hassle at the airport!