Tuesday, September 5 2006 11:42 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: Fresh off the 3.30 p.m. flight from London Heathrow, passengers trundling their luggage through the arrival hall at Cork airport in Ireland report little or no disruption due to enhanced security measures.

"No, it was very smooth," says Tim Clear from Australia.

"We had expected some disruption but there were no problems at all," he said.

Investment banker Philip Behan has a similar tale of non-woe. "Of course I had arrived an hour early in case of delays and taking your shoes off is new but apart from that nothing."

"You just have to get there an hour earlier. They have to make it safe for people," underlines frequent flyer Mairead Flynn.

In the face of such calm acceptance, and with airport procedures apparently normalising after the massive disruption following the foiled Aug 10 terror plot in Britain, it appears that things are returning to normal.

Yet that is only allusion, as many analysts argue that the post 9/11 security climate has gradually created a heightened awareness of risk that in some cases, may lead to fear, disruption and increase social tensions.

A recent survey by the British YouGov research firm revealed that 46 percent of those polled feel 'less safe' now than before the 9/11 attacks. Twenty-one percent said in a different poll they were concerned about the impact of Islam.

A majority of survey respondents also predicted that the risk of terrorist attacks was likely to increase. Some 44 percent estimated that the so-called "war on terror" would probably last for over 20 years.

The most immediate effect of the terror threat on ordinary people is the gradual adoption of a 'zero-risk' mentality, according to security analyst Charlie Edwards of the London-based think tank Demos.

"You can see this in the trends we are experiencing," he says, referring to a recent incident in which British holidaymakers refused to let their aircraft take off until two men of Asian appearance, apparently speaking Arabic, were removed.

However at the same time, Edwards is keen to stress that the risk of being caught up in a terrorist attack, compared for example to that of being involved in a road accident, remains low.

"After Heathrow, people were relieved that the plot had been foiled but above all were angered by the inconvenience," he said.

British Home Secretary John Reid, however, presented a different picture. In a speech on the eve of the foiled Heathrow terror plot, he described the extent to which security concerns may encroach on the lives of ordinary people, and on the freedoms that they today take for granted.

"The word 'security' has changed in everyday meaning from being the desirable objective of financial comfort in old age or the formal description of military power, to being one of the highest concerns for daily living," Reid said.

"Sometimes we may have to modify our own freedoms in the short term in order to prevent their misuse by those who oppose our fundamental values and would destroy all of our freedoms," he said.

The level to which freedoms will be curtailed, he says, will correspond to the level of threat faced, says Edwards, an expert on counter-terrorism issues. In the meantime, people have adjusted to the new realities of the post 9/11 world, where news of terrorist attacks against Western citizens pepper the headlines on an almost daily basis.

"I was on the Tube three minutes before the Liverpool St station bombing last year," says Philip Behan.

"People still used the trains July 8. People have very short memories. They tend to just get on with things," he said.