If you are at all squeamish about stripping off – totally – in front of strangers, then perhaps Manchester Airport is not for you.

The airport has introduced an X-Ray machine which generates naked images of passengers. The device, which allows security staff to instantly spot hidden weapons or explosives, will also reveal body piercings, false limbs, breast enlargements – and a clear rendition of the scannee’s genitalia.

Airport authorities say the images will be destroyed instantly and will be seen by only one person at a “remote location”.

The scanners, which work by broadcasting an electromagnetic wave on to passengers, creating a virtual three-dimensional image from reflected energy, will speed up airport security checks.

What is truly amazing about this is how most of the world’s fear-stricken citizens will probably go along with the invasion of privacy, like so many bovines on the way to the chop house.

As aviation columnist Patrick Smith points out, the relentless search methods employed by the Transportation Security Administration in the US (and by airport security staff in many other – but certainly not all -parts of the world) have not made us any safer.

In a recent column on Salon.com, Smith writes: “In any case, and in spite of the Transportation Security Administration’s best efforts, there are limitless ways to sneak knives and other dangerous materials past guards; not to mention, a deadly weapon can be fashioned from just about anything, including plenty of materials found on airplanes. (I’ll point out that even maximum-security prisons are unable to eliminate knives and contraband.) Yet whether by virtue of incompetence or willful ignorance, TSA continues to waste untold time and untold millions of dollars on a tedious, zero-tolerance fixation with blades and sharps. This does nothing to make us safer, and in fact draws security resources away from worthy pursuits.”

Meanwhile, back at Manchester, if you do not want to be scanned, you may present yourself instead to the nearest security officer for the usual gloved-hand feel-up.