A NEW PASSPORT

I have had to get a new passport. The old one didn't run out until August, but I am going to China at the end of March, and the Chinese require all passports to have at least 6 months to the expiry date before they will give you a visa. Mine was just out of time.

Post 9/11 and all that, getting a new British passport is not easy. My expiring one, acquired 10 years ago, was organised (painlessly) through the British Embassy in Copenhagen. But that is no longer allowed; everything must now go through the Passport Agency in London.

I called them up to find out how long it would take, and they said "a minimum" of 6 weeks if it was done through the post. Given that we needed at least a month to get a Chinese visa, I didn't like the sound of that word minimum, particularly after reading the horror stories about the Agency over the past year. So I chose the "fast-track" option, where I pay more, arrange a personal interview at the Agency, submit an application and get the new passport four hours later. Sure, that would involve flying to London. But I hadn't seen my mum in a while, so I could kill two birds with one stone.  

My time was arranged for 10.15am on Saturday 14 February (I was impressed that they worked on Saturdays). I got there early, since there were ridiculous security measures. eventually got to see a human (not at the appointed time, but not long afterwards) and then received the bombshell. The computer system was down, so no passports were being issued that day.

I was lucky, in that I had booked my return flight for Monday afternoon, and so could pick the new one up Monday lunchtime (which I did, though it meant an additional trip from Luton to London). Others were not so fortunate. The man in the booth next to me was arranging a passport for his son so that they could fly to the United States on the Sunday to attend his father's funeral.

Nobody can be responsible for technical glitches. But what struck me forcibly were three things. First, we were not treated as citizens acquiring a document to which we had a right, but more like petty criminals trying to pull one over on the state. Secondly, staff at the office were completely unconcerned about the human problems which the glitches had caused. Nearly all of us had travelled from abroad, at some expense, in order to acquire that document, and couldn't get home without it, yet they couldn't give a rat's arse. Thirdly, and perhaps contributing to the first two things, the offices were dreadful; badly designed, shabby, and dirty.

Waiting around to hear what would happen, I have to admit that I experienced a new emotion with respect to my country, one that I have never really had before. That emotion was shame. Tanzania had similar difficulties, but my expectations there were vastly lower. The U.K., on the other hand, claims to be a developed nation. Not when it comes to passports.

Walter Blotscher