Keep yer hand on yer ha'penny in Paris

[shaunbhoy]

Why are you sure of that? Such a database needs to be kept exceptionally secure, which means the remote PC and the network connecting it needs to be physically and technically secure, which costs money.

If British Consulates don't have ultra secure connections back to the UK then they are a liability. Trust me. Some of their "background activities" would require such links to be available 24/7.

If they can already issue you a document that will get you into the country why should they go to all of that trouble and expense simply to save you a couple of quid?

They could have issued such a document for a fraction of the cost that they did though. They are, after all, paid for from the taxes of people that may get robbed whilst overseas.

[Old Greg]

If British Consulates don't have ultra secure connections back to the UK then they are a liability. Trust me. Some of their "background activities" would require such links to be available 24/7.



They could have issued such a document for a fraction of the cost that they did though. They are, after all, paid for from the taxes of people that may get robbed whilst overseas.

So are you saying this is good value for those of us taxpayers sensible enough to take good care of our passports?

Presumably you had travel insurance to cover such costs?

[shaunbhoy]

So are you saying this is good value for those of us taxpayers sensible enough to take good care of our passports?

Presumably you had travel insurance to cover such costs?

Now I know you are just trying a bit of flippant Devil's Advocacy here OG, but my points still stand.
Every Gate at every Arrivals Terminal in every British Airport that caters for International flights will have been fitted with Iris Recognition and Signature Recognition Technology for Passport Control. It is relatively inexpensive in the great scheme of things.
It is inconceivable that our Consulates will not have access to this also. It is something that will have been demanded by them in order that they can do their job.
This will have been paid for up front by the very people who may need its help in an Emergency whilst abroad, for it is a core activity of overseas Consulates to deliver this support.
Indeed, it was the work of a few minutes for them to bring up the details of my wife's passport on their system once we had supplied them with our background info. At this point they would have had access to her photo, signature, Iris print, and a host of other personal information that only she personally could have verified.
At that stage they could quite easily and securely have produced something tangible that would have sufficed, and for a fraction of the 116 Euros that they stitched us up for.
It boils down to a blend of surly intransigence coupled with a profiteering mentality unbecoming in a Public Official.
Anyway, we managed to work round them and get home.
One factor this thread does shed a slightly disturbing light upon is just how many people are quite happily prepared to accept mediocrity on the part of those whose raison d'etre is to provide them with a service.
Content to accept a few crumbs tossed from the tables at which they have forked out for a gourmet meal.
I blame the dumbing down in schools and those Baby Boomers that have produced a generation of mollycoddled youngsters that need their hands held and their backsides wiped for them at every turn.
Oh well, if you remove all adversity and responsibility then I suppose this is the bottom line.
God help us when, or if the reins of control are handed over to them. It will probably get outsourced to Bob!!

[sasguru]

... have produced a generation of mollycoddled youngsters that need their hands held and their backsides wiped for them at every turn.

You just don't get the irony do you?
So why do you expect your hands held and your backsides wiped, when you're stupid enough to lose your passport? Sounds like they were efficient enough to give you some documentation so you could travel the same day. And charged you a bit of stupidity tax so next time you'd be more careful.
The entitlement mentality of the lower orders never ceases to amaze me.
But I guess if you've sucked at the tit of the public sector for most of your life, first as a squaddie potato peeler and latterly as a janitor, you wouldn't know much else.

[shaunbhoy]

You just don't get the irony do you?

Nothing "ironic" about expecting to get the service you have paid for when you have been the victim of a crime on foreign soil.
You will feel exactly the same if your wife gets her bag pinched when you rock up at whatever god-forsaken flea-ridden backwater she is taking you next. In fact you will feel worse as both passports will have been nicked as she can't trust you to look after your own without getting drool, porridge, or smeg all over it.
I just hope she puts your comfort blanky in the room safe or you might need to be sedated!!

So why do you expect your hands held and your backsides wiped

I don't.
My expectations are merely that the Consulate deliver on their "Mission Statement" without fleecing the punters that provide the funding for their cossetted existence.
You seem happy to accept shoddy service, and that is your prerogative. It will doubtless have handicapped you in life if you but knew it, but as you are too dim-witted ever to have realised, no harm done eh?

[doodab]

Every Gate at every Arrivals Terminal in every British Airport that caters for International flights will have been fitted with Iris Recognition and Signature Recognition Technology for Passport Control. It is relatively inexpensive in the great scheme of things.

And it would have made nob all difference to your plight.

Would you really trust these people you criticuse so severely with an online database containing all this information? No, and neither would most other people, which is why the national identity register was scrapped. The database you think they can "just access" doesn't exist.

IRIS is being switched off. AFAIK it was a parallel system, not some huge central database of all passports.

The alternative ePassports work by comparing the person claiming to be you with the photo on the passport that you didn't have. The machines aren't all connected to some central ID database. This is why your ePassport works all over the EU. Assuming you haven't lost it of course.

Keep on digging. At this rate you won't need a passport, you'll have your own chunnel.

[sasguru]

Keep on digging .

I do find the less cognitively gifted have a propensity for this.

[Old Greg]

Now I know you are just trying a bit of flippant Devil's Advocacy here OG, but my points still stand.
Every Gate at every Arrivals Terminal in every British Airport that caters for International flights will have been fitted with Iris Recognition and Signature Recognition Technology for Passport Control. It is relatively inexpensive in the great scheme of things.
It is inconceivable that our Consulates will not have access to this also. It is something that will have been demanded by them in order that they can do their job.
This will have been paid for up front by the very people who may need its help in an Emergency whilst abroad, for it is a core activity of overseas Consulates to deliver this support.
Indeed, it was the work of a few minutes for them to bring up the details of my wife's passport on their system once we had supplied them with our background info. At this point they would have had access to her photo, signature, Iris print, and a host of other personal information that only she personally could have verified.
At that stage they could quite easily and securely have produced something tangible that would have sufficed, and for a fraction of the 116 Euros that they stitched us up for.
It boils down to a blend of surly intransigence coupled with a profiteering mentality unbecoming in a Public Official.
Anyway, we managed to work round them and get home.
One factor this thread does shed a slightly disturbing light upon is just how many people are quite happily prepared to accept mediocrity on the part of those whose raison d'etre is to provide them with a service.
Content to accept a few crumbs tossed from the tables at which they have forked out for a gourmet meal.
I blame the dumbing down in schools and those Baby Boomers that have produced a generation of mollycoddled youngsters that need their hands held and their backsides wiped for them at every turn.
Oh well, if you remove all adversity and responsibility then I suppose this is the bottom line.
God help us when, or if the reins of control are handed over to them. It will probably get outsourced to Bob!!

Why on earth do you expect every consulate to become a de facto branch of the passport service? You had an emergency and they got you home the same day. And you complain!

This is typical of the whingeing culture in this country. Are you and your missus the elderly couple in the paper who complained that their two local councils cut the grass to different lengths on either side of the road?

[sasguru]

Why on earth do you expect every consulate to become a de facto branch of the passport service? You had an emergency and they got you home the same day. And you complain!

This is typical of the whingeing culture in this country. Are you and your missus the elderly couple in the paper who complained that their two local councils cut the grass to different lengths on either side of the road?

The sad thing is that he's bred. And so it goes, another generation of lazy, mollycoddled, whining slack-jawed cretins the rest of us have to pay for.

[shaunbhoy]

This thread really does highlight just what is wrong with this country.
It is easy to see why sas would jump to the defence of the sort of underachieving public schoolboy types that seem to frequent the Consular Service, him being a bit of a lame duck himself on the academic front.
However, it appears that many others seem all too willing to simply accept poor levels of service, and just slavishly tug the forelock to those placed in authority over them, regardless of how shabbily they perform their role.
That is why nothing ever changes, until those with the stones to question poor practice get involved.
Thankfully there are still people like me to do some moving and shaking.


Carry on!!