Last week, the UK passport agency's website included the text, "You do not have to wait until your passport is nearly expired to renew it...You can renew your passport whenever you wish". You can see Google's cache HERE. This week, that text has mysteriously disappeared. See HERE. It now implies that you can't renew your passport until the last 9 months of its validity. Anyone would think they were trying to stop a mass of early renewals to avoid ID cards. Perish the thought. They'd never do that, would they? Nah.
Monday, April 03, 2006
Labour Changes Passport Rules to Prepare for ID Cards
Last week, the UK passport agency's website included the text, "You do not have to wait until your passport is nearly expired to renew it...You can renew your passport whenever you wish". You can see Google's cache HERE. This week, that text has mysteriously disappeared. See HERE. It now implies that you can't renew your passport until the last 9 months of its validity. Anyone would think they were trying to stop a mass of early renewals to avoid ID cards. Perish the thought. They'd never do that, would they? Nah.
In any event, I would suggest washing your passport as the best route to making sure you *have* to get a new one. There will be a spate of people leaving their passports in the their back pockets, it seems to me.
ReplyDeleteFunny enough I was looking at my Passport today to see when it expires and wondering about whether to renew it early...
ReplyDeleteAnd the issue here is, what, exactly? Parliament has passed a law, you do believe in parliament, don't you Iain? I know your party spent most of its history trying to keep the oiks out and the toffs in, but you lost.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, oiks out, toffs in? You must be bleedin' joking! Shows how little you know me. Proud to be an Oik from Essex.
ReplyDeleteWhy doesn't anonymous reveal who he/she is? Perhaps he/she has something to hide etc. I hear ID Cards will prove useful for that.
ReplyDeleteAnd since when has a bill that was sold to the public on weasal words and which needed four line whips to pass had anything to do with Parliament?
If anything, it has more to do with King John or James II, but far be it for me to cast aspersions on our government...
So when should I renew my passport by to get as many ID card free years as possible?
ReplyDeleteor perhaps "I need a new biometric passport now, as I wish to visit the US - I heard that Iain Dale is doing a speaking tour".
ReplyDeleteThis just confirms my worse suspicions about NuLab.
ReplyDeleteHowever on the brighter side actions speak louder than words & this sort of action hardly supports their line that we are all gagging to be numbered by the State. Hopefully they are becoming a little nervous
Anonymous 1 is severely mistaken if they think this is an issue only opposed by the Tories. Voting Conservative is the last thing I'd do (usually Lib Dem or Green, to my regret I fell for Labour in '97) and yet I see ID cards (and the National Database which is the real nasty stuff in this) as one of the worst bits of legislation to come through Parliament for a long, long time. Would Anonymous 1 have been so receptive to his/her "argument" being used in favour of the Poll Tax, for instance?
ReplyDeleteAnon 2, it's been obvious from the start that the government don't trust us all to take them up enthusiastically as they initially wanted them to be compulsory. When that wasn't going to happen they hoodwinked the Lords into accepting a meaningless definition of "voluntary".
Not quite on the passport issue, but worthy of comment I think. I recently needed to hire a car and of course, needed my driving licence. As I have a "photo ID" card-type licence, I needed to take the paper bit that goes with it as well. What nonsense having to have 2 different bits to comprise ONE driving licence!
ReplyDeleteInstead of faffing about ID cards which are not wanted or needed here, (what passes for) the Government could concentrate on issuing a proper plastic card with photo Driving Licence which has ALL the required info on it. They could then work out whether it is actually possible to issue such a card, and save us hard-done-by taxpayers the zillions it will cost before they discover they can't work out how to issue ID cards anyway.
Then again, is this another way of funnelling our money into Capita's coffers - so it can come back again to the Labour Party?
Iain,
ReplyDeleteCan't see the change myself - the explanatory text is still there and there is no apparent change to the version in the Google cache.
So....
Either the original has been reinstated or google has updated its cache.
If the latter, I think you are a little harsh - the footnote is marked and not a huge scroll down either. As ZaNu-Labour tricks go, this one is relatively minor....
Toodle Pip!
PG