Crackdown on Christmas Crackers

Stansted Airport near London, one of the major staging posts for (budget) travel to Ireland, has just announced that its security personnel will not allow Christmas crackers in hand luggage. The reasoning is easy - they contain a minimum amount of explosives and thus may cause a maximum amount of mayhem if going off on a plane. And it is also not always possible to identify their contents by x-ray. As to check-in luggage: most airlines frown upon the tiny bombs anyway.

So be a nice traveler this weekend and leave your crackers at home - other European airports are set to follow suit.