INTERNATIONAL TRAVELLERS BEMUSE SNOPPER

Our Travel Correspondent reports

For someone who doesn`t `do` international travel, Snopper came mighty close to it on Wednesday evening when he was seen at the arrival area in Gatwick`s South Terminal.

When approached by the waiting media as to the reason for his presence, it was quickly established that he and Mrs. Snopper were there to meet Hamburg based family members who were visiting for a few days. Asked what he thought of his terminal arrival experience, Snopper was quick to confess some bemusement at the demeanour of passengers as they emerged into the arrival meeting area.

"They don`t half look miserable," he said. "Just look at the state of them - trudging along, pulling their rolling luggage pieces behind them, making that awful kind of scraping noise as they go, half of them on mobile phones as they trudge along, some dressed in shorts and t-shirts, so it`s obviously a fashion wasteland....and then there are these people waiting for some of them holding up cards with names on. It`s just a sad shambles."

Snopper was equally unimpressed by the exhorbitant car parking charges (£3.90 for 45 minutes stretched even Snopper`s resources) but it seems the whole experience has made him even more determined to avoid having a passport, thus - in turn - leaving the question as to whether to leave his fingerprints to medical science once again on the back boiler.

It remains to be seen if the return visit for the return flight this weekend will lessen the tension, but travellers can expect some delays as the ant-rant squad again provide increased security during Snopper`s visit. Well, the travelling public do need to be protected from such negative outbursts, don`t they?