Get yourself a padlock

It's looking more and more likely that Schapelle Corby, the poor young "beauty student" arrested in Bali for drug-smuggling, is innocent, and that she may face life in a rather skanky cell for the crime of not locking her bags. I can't help but think this may be a little unfair. To say nothing of the fact that with my rather small-l liberal views on marijuana, jail time would seem harsh to me even if she was as guilty as a Catholic priest at choir practice.

It's always seemed to me rather obvious that you should lock your bags when travelling by air, especially when going overseas. But then, I am of a suspicious nature, and fully expect that no mere baggage handler will be able to resist slipping four kilograms of the finest green through any zip left carelessly unguarded. I mean, they're only human, and drug-smuggling is not a crime if someone else gets caught. I'm a little more bemused about their tendency to perform fashion shows on the tarmac, I must say, but I suppose we all have a hankering to wear a camel suit now and then.

What really amuses me is the reaction of the baggage-handlers union, which is acting as if it has had its feelings terribly hurt, and is very upset that anyone should cast the slightest aspersion on the untarnished moral integrity of its members.