His opening salvo was that "as they queued for hours to have their passports checked at Heathrow, many travellers must have wondered why they had to wait only a matter of minutes - at most- to buy their weekly shop at a supermarket."
I hate to rain on Terry's parade but I wonder when he last visited a Tesco's as a mystery shopper. I took the attached photograph late evening, a few weeks ago, at my local Tesco. I haven't been back since! Behind the rows of wheeled cages waiting for the army of 'outside peak hours shelf stackers' are the checkouts. Even the aisles were blocked and it was difficult moving some of the cages to actually get to the shelves. I wonder how often Terry has actually experienced real-life in Tesco!
Nevertheless Terry has an answer for public services improvement. Competition which enables customer choice is the foundation of his philosophy. Not exactly new but slightly harder when you try to transfer to the Borders Agency. Of course we would like the choice of an array of providers when we try to make our way through Border controls but only when they all match a basic standard in spotting the undesirable and keeping them out. It's not exactly the same as Tesco where I have the choice whether or not to shop there or indeed just leave my loaded trolley and take the nearest exit with hands in pockets.
