Keep yer hand on yer ha'penny in Paris

[NotAllThere]

So to summarise this thread. A slack-jawed cretin and his wife stupidly have a passport stolen abroad due to being a bit thick. And then have the bare-faced gall to come and moan on here when they are charged a perfectly reasonable stupidity tax to get home. You couldn't make it up.

Move along nuffink to see here, innit.

What's the national lottery got to do with anything?

They can't just hand out passports willy nilly...

They can't hand out passports at all. The consulates/embassies used to be able to issue passports. Now (in Europe at least), passports (for non-residents) are all handled in Durham. The best you'll get is an emergency passport to get you home. Claim the cost back from your insurance.

[shaunbhoy]

They can't hand out passports at all. The consulates/embassies used to be able to issue passports. Now (in Europe at least), passports (for non-residents) are all handled in Durham.

Hardly progress is it?
Little point in having all these Consulates if they are capable of virtually nothing useful. Few quid to be saved there as we are in such times of austerity.

[shaunbhoy]

Slight aside, on the train back to Devon from Paddington I ended up sitting opposite 70s Yorkshire and England Cricket Legend Chris Old and his wife.
Charming old fella with a great sense of humour and some wonderful stories.
On their way home from a Memorial Service for Tony Greig.

Check him out............

[Old Greg]

Hardly progress is it?
Little point in having all these Consulates if they are capable of virtually nothing useful. Few quid to be saved there as we are in such times of austerity.

They came to your aid in an emergency and helped you get home the same day. It's hardly their job to facilitate the next 10 years of your travel. It's emergency assistance.

[shaunbhoy]

They came to your aid in an emergency and helped you get home the same day. It's hardly their job to facilitate the next 10 years of your travel. It's emergency assistance.

Bulltulip. They could quite easily have accomplished both for no added effort. They chose to fleece me instead, and were damned reluctant even to do that. Bunch of chinless parasites.
Nail 'em up by the snouts I say.

[Old Greg]

Bulltulip. They could quite easily have accomplished both for no added effort. They chose to fleece me instead, and were damned reluctant even to do that. Bunch of chinless parasites.
Nail 'em up by the snouts I say.

Just be grateful you were not obliged to sit an aptitude test first.

[doodab]

Bulltulip. They could quite easily have accomplished both for no added effort.

Why do you think some outpost in the middle of nowhere would be able to turn it around in a fraction of the time it takes in the UK? They need to check these things properly, which is why the standard passport process takes about 3 weeks if you are in the UK and longer if you aren't (because it goes back to the UK).

If they just handed them out in foreign countries the moment some halfwit turns up with a British accent and claims they've lost theirs every blagger and his/her "foreign partner" and "kids" would be queueing up to give them the "we was mugged" sob story and get themselves a UK passport. You'd still be standing in the queue now.

Never mind the issues with physical security of blanks and programming the biometric data, which would quite obviously cost money and take additional effort.

Just count yourself lucky they let you back in at all. A friend of mine who happens to have been born overseas and taken his fathers nationality had to spend a week in Portugal getting his passport sorted after his accommodation was burgled and then when he got to Heathrow they initially refused to let him in despite the fact he's lived here for 30 years (quite legally, his mother was English), owns 3 houses and has two English kids. Bear that in mind when you're casting your vote during the upcoming referendum on whether or not you want to be considered foreign.

That's a good point actually, if they become independent how are Scotland going to set up a network of consulates and ensure that they don't become the next back door into the EU?

[MyUserName]

It is largely irrelevant, being scottish would normally put you on an immigration blacklist.

[shaunbhoy]

Why do you think some outpost in the middle of nowhere would be able to turn it around in a fraction of the time it takes in the UK? They need to check these things properly, which is why the standard passport process takes about 3 weeks if you are in the UK and longer if you aren't (because it goes back to the UK).

Brussels is hardly "some outpost in the middle of nowhere" though, is it? And I am sure that even the lowliest Consular Official is able to log onto a PC that can access the same database that any other Passport Office in the land can manage.
The fact is that this scenario just highlights the kind of bureaucratic ineptitude that can only truly be mastered by those cossetted in cushy positions within the Public Service that are not subject to any proper level of accountability.
We were hardly starting the whole process from scratch after all, this was only a replacement for a Passport issued a little over a year ago with Iris recognition and all the other bells and whistles.

[doodab]

And I am sure that even the lowliest Consular Official is able to log onto a PC that can access the same database that any other Passport Office in the land can manage.

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 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?