Readers of this blog (and you both know who you are!) will remember that I posted two blogs last summer about the inconsistencies and anomalies of UK airport security. Most of us who travel regularly know the rules, the red tape and the hoops that we have to jump through to get from A to B and generally we play along, co-operate fully and emerge unscathed at the other end. Well, I have to hold my hands up and admit that, last week, I momentarily forgot the rules and did a terrible thing.

I tried to smuggle a 200ml can of shaving gel through Manchester Security. I know, I know, what a thing to admit to! I’m sorry to shock you like this but I have to say that it was an act of thoughtlessness rather than outright criminality and never ever before have I tried to break the 100ml limit.

As the sombre official confiscated the offending can I shrugged my shoulders and smiled sheepishly at her, half expecting an armed guard to burst through the crowds and spread eagle me against the wall. That didn’t happen, of course, and the official even gave me the option to fly the can through as hold luggage at a cost of £25. No thanks, I’m more of a Gillette than a Calvin Klein man and 5 euros would easily buy a replacement, though I was grateful for the kind offer.

What I wanted to ask, was firstly, why would the can be less dangerous in the hold than in the cabin? Secondly, why is a can containing 200ml of shaving gel more lethal than a can containing 100ml? Of course, nobody knows the answers because there are no answers. These are just ridiculous, ill-conceived, ill-thought out, knee-jerk European Union laws drafted by some guy chained up in a dark Brussels basement. Our job is not to question, it is simply to accept the rules and get on with it.

I did some research though and the guy in the basement has now decided that it is in fact ok to travel with larger quantities of liquids. The trouble is though that the present rules will remain in force until April 29th, 2013. Why ………….oh, forget it!