The UK Government’s suspension of British flights to and from Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt over the last few days, whilst British security officials investigated and put in place their own safeguards, met with a mixture of approval and criticism. The move can hardly have come as a surprise following the downing of a Russian airliner over the Sinai Desert last week with the loss of 224 lives.

It has yet to be conclusively established how the crash occurred but, upon hearing the news, I’m sure that most people immediately suspected a terrorist missile or bomb. Evidently both UK and US Intelligence have recently warned of terrorist activity in the area so that was enough for our Government to take action.

It’s a difficult position for any government to be in because with 20,000 nationals currently holidaying in the area that’s an awful lot of responsibility. I suppose the Foreign Office could have said that flying in or out of southern Egypt at the moment is a real danger and then leave it up to the individual but that is not the way it works these days.

If a British airliner were to suffer the same fate as the Russian plane just imagine the outrage directed at the Government. Imagine too the huge raft of legal claims. One cannot blame the Government for its cautious stance, irrespective of the inconvenience to holidaymakers. Better inconvenienced than dead.

I’ve never had a favourable opinion of Egyptian security since the time I took an early morning flight on Egypt Air from Cairo to Luxor a few years back. The flight was scheduled for about 6am and at 4.30am or so, as the passengers went through security screening, the “guard” was fast asleep in front of his x-ray machine. It seemed funny at the time but not anymore.