Gatwick airport delays: Liz Truss once suggested that barking dogs could deter drones

Since yesterday and the continued debacle at Gatwick airport, the topics of drones has been hot on everyone's lips.

With only a handful of planes being allowed to take off and passengers still waiting to see if their flights will actually happen, the chaotic scenes at the UK's second-busiest airport presented thousands with a miserable start to the Christmas period.

If this was a Scooby Doo cartoon, we'd probably say something like, "We'd have gotten away for Christmas if it wasn't for you meddling drones." However, stopping the drones and finding those responsible has proved to be easier said than done.

Not even the army has been able to stop the annoying little flying machines - and it's about time that they consider other methods to bring them down. Luckily, for the passengers at Gatwick, chief secretary to the treasury, Liz Truss, has a great idea.

Barking dogs. Yes, that's right, canines barking are a potential foe to machines with no emotions being controlled by people miles away.

This isn't a new suggestion by any stretch of the imagination, as Truss first brought it up in December 2016 during a discussion in the Commons about drugs being smuggled into prisons.

At the time she said:

What we are doing is solutions such as installing extra netting.

I was at HMP Pentonville last week. They've now got patrol dogs who are barking, which helps deter drones.

So we're using all kinds of solutions to deal with contraband coming into our prisons.

Her suggestion drew confused looks, from even her own Tory colleagues, with one Labour MP shouting back at her: "It's the minister who is barking."

Once again we've got no idea whatsoever about how dogs barking at drones would deter them, unless it happened to be a really huge three-headed dog-like Cerberus or "dogs with bees in their mouths and when they bark they shoot bees".

Given the scenes at Gatwick yesterday, it's not surprising that Truss's unique take on anti-drone combat has resurfaced online and, to be honest, someone at Gatwick should have probably given it a go.

Perhaps they can apply a similar tactic for Brexit?

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