Passports

[john_morris_uk]

Thank you Barnacle, beat me to it.

When I was in the Army I could travel in every European Country (except for Switzerland) on Military ID Card only. Passports are Government Cash Cows.

They may or may not be cash cows for the government, but when you are in the services, your passport is paid for by your unit so what is your gripe?

PS agree - you should have had a NATO travel order to travel on your ID.

 

[chinita]

You should also have had a NATO Travel Order to make your ID card valid. I remember having an interesting discussion with an Italian immigration plod about whether or not the travel order needed to be stamped by him. In the end I told him to stamp it if he wanted to as my next stop was Malta wnere the ID card was valid without the travel order.

On the occasions when I carried a NATO Travel Order, it was never requested at any border.

 

[chinita]

They may or may not be cash cows for the government, but when you are in the services, your passport is paid for by your unit so what is your gripe?

PS agree - you should have had a NATO travel order to travel on your ID.

Uh?

You seem to be hallucinating.

Of course I have not 'griped' about having to pay for a passport when in the services. Please point me to where I did. I would be silly to gripe about something which didn't happen wouldn't I?

 

[William_H]

No,why? I live near Brighton and have lived in Sussex for most of my life. Can't stand abroad that is all. Norfolk is foreign enough for me.

Ah a true Brit then?

On the other extreme of this discussion we have a problem here in Oz of boat people. Or people smugglers.
They take the cash of the poor unfortunates and set off from Indonesia to cover the 500 or so NM to Christmas Island. The boats are always destroyed on arrival so they don't set off in the best of condition.

About 12months back there was a terrible tragedy when a boat carrying 100 odd people crashed onto the cliffs of Christmas Island. Locals and the Oz navy were heroic in rescuing about half of them. So then there was an inquest. It seems they had armed them selves with a mobile phone with oz sim card ready for arrival. In the storm conditions they were not observed approaching the wrong side until it was too late. They called for help on the phone at the last minute. Typical of these court proceedings there was an attempt to blame the oz navy for being too slow in the rescue. Their boat being on the sheltered side of the island.
Boats are usually tracked by aircraft and over the horizon radar but it seems in the storm this one got through the defences. Christmas Island itself being about 800nm off oz coast.
Friends who have sailed this NW coast describe the visit from the customs plane every day calling on VHF they became quite friends. There is about 500nm of coast with no civilisation.
So don't be concerned when customs ask you where you have come from in UK. olewill

 

[ianj99]

If Alex Salmond gets his way, you'll probably need one to sail into Scottish waters!

 

[maxi77]

On the occasions when I carried a NATO Travel Order, it was never requested at any border.

I was dealing with a very small immigration office in Sicily which had never seen an RN ID card before, he could cope with the NATO travel order copy in Italian hence the discussion

 

[john_morris_uk]

Uh?

You seem to be hallucinating.

Of course I have not 'griped' about having to pay for a passport when in the services. Please point me to where I did. I would be silly to gripe about something which didn't happen wouldn't I?

When you write, "passports are cash cows for government" I assumed that you were complaining - and that was what I perceived to be your 'gripe'. It was all part of the same sentence in which you mentioned your travel when you were in the army...

 

[Seajet]

On one occasion when I returned to Chichester harbour from Fecamp, the Customs chap came aboard ( we had to use a phone box to announce our arrival, no VHF or mobiles then ) and his primary weapon was a corkscrew, proceeding to enjoy most of our small stock, " mind if I put you down as having been rummaged ? " !

On another occasion when sailing along the SW England coast from Fowey to Plymouth at night, a Lynx helicopter ( I know the characteristic sound ) hovered in front of us without lights, obviously using night vision kit which wasn't advertised at the time - about 1981 - but I was familiar with that from my BAe workplace so had the sense not to blind the pilot with a searchlight, which was the first instinct - looking what was going on, not blinding.

I've always found Customs people very sensible, though by saying that, sod's law means the next one I meet will be a jumped up Hitler-esque traffic warden type !

 

[Athene V30]

Most of us cruise on one coast or another, and I don't know of anyone who keeps a passport aboard unless intending to go foreign.

I can't recall ever being asked for a passport when abroad (France / Belgium / Holland) and certainly never on return to UK waters.

Bit of Fred Rift but I have one of the 'new' chip passports and a few weeks ago flew into Heathrow with 4 others. 3 had the new passports and went through the photo recognition 'fast' lane and 2 still had old passports so joined the queue for manual checks. The 2 on the manual checks were through before the fast queue!!