"Huge queue for EU passport holders"
I've never understood the need to have all the separate queues at passport control. Surely border staff are all trained to scrutinise and process passports from all corners of the globe - or am I missing something? Border staff receive messages on a screen, radio up for help and process information which is hardly more challenging than scanning a reduced price pack of frozen peas in Morrison's. Outside the British Isles most border staff can do the job in multiple languages to boot.
The situation is particularly ridiculous when there are two passengers in one queue and eighty in the other and the customs officer in queue "A" sits and does nothing for half an hour while his colleague in queue "B" scrambles to process the hordes in his queue. We never get to that ridiculous situation in the local supermarket - so why do we have to put up with this in the hot, stressful, tiring atmosphere of an airport or customs point?

Sounds horrendous Galad. Must be just down to sheer volume of traffic. Even with electronic scanners it will still take a minute or so to process the passports, visas etc. Mutilpy that by hundreds and you have your delay time. I do sometimes wonder though if certain countries just have these annoying border checks simply because they can. It provides hours of endless fun to the border force to be able to irritate passing tourists, without any consequences. I remember in the 70's working in North Africa. The customs and passport control were horrendous. The thing is these countries were third, or even fourth world in parts. There was little you could bring in with your luggage apart from a few personal comforts, but they would empty all the luggage out and go through it. They even did this on the way out!!! There was nothing at all anyone would want to bring out from some of those places. We thought the guards and police just enjoyed irritating the travellers for fun. Nearly every trip the airline pilot used to come into the customs hall and really have a go at the officials for holding up the flight. Then we used to get waved through. So it can't have been that important for them to search us except for fun. I then used to hand back until the officials were told off, then just get straight through. Hey ho, all part of the rich tapestry.

Cheers Concrete