Plane just landed -- see you in a couple of hours.

Quite a few stories recently about long delays in getting through passport checks at UK airports.  It's not a pleasant experience having to queue up to have the light shone in your eyes when all you're seeking to do is return to your own country, but I've never experienced unacceptable delays, and I cannot understand why there should ever be any.  After all, there can be few procedures which better lend themselves to organised management - what planes are coming in when, from where, and how many people are on board is known well in advance, so where's the problem?  As an ex-civil servant I strongly suspect the problem is the underfunding and undermanning of whatever department or agency carries out the checks.  Of course, another approach would be to look at the scheduling of arrivals, so you don't get a load of people all coming in at once.  So I'm sure the problem is solvable - just as I'm equally sure it will remain unsolved.