Cutting through the Protection jargon

On a flight down from Edinburgh to Birmingham this week I was given food for thought in two areas. After an uneventful flight, which for me fortunately meant no turbulence, we arrived at the gate at Birmingham airport bang on time. Then after waiting for 15 minutes with the aircraft doors wide open, we were told by the cabin crew that we had to wait for a bus to come and ferry us to the terminal. A few of us cast confused glances at each other as we were effectively parked right next to the terminal at what appeared to be a fully functioning gate. The glances turned to sighs of irritation...