Renew your passport now!

[herulach]

This the one that cost £2.3 billion, and still doesnt work correctly and has made certain people involved with the project *very* rich ?

Roll on another gov. ICT project. They are good for a laugh, if nothing else.

Exactly my point, massive centralised computer databases dont work, no matter how much money you throw at them.

[Agent]

Just re-read that. I missed that you were being sarky

[JPreston]

Definitely going to renew before I have to be tattooed with my NI number, but does it have to be in May (other than to cause a spike in protest)? Want to go on holiday soon and don't want to be stuck in the landslide of renewals.

[Nick F]

I got mine 3 months ago

I think that ID cards will be scraped at the next general election anyway!

[htid]

Even if we renew now, we still have to do this interview/retina/finger print thing in 10 years when this passport comes out, right? Then the ID cards will probably cost more than they do now and we'll still be the same as everyone else...maybe its just me being stingey, 51 quid is alot to a student

[Mrs Dak]

Is it £51 to renew passport?

[Rave]

Even if we renew now, we still have to do this interview/retina/finger print thing in 10 years when this passport comes out, right?

Not if you leave the country first, an option I'm (regretably) being forced to consider.

Then the ID cards will probably cost more than they do now and we'll still be the same as everyone else...maybe its just me being stingey, 51 quid is alot to a student

It's a lot to most people. At the end of the day though, what price freedom?

In other news, DWP workers are suspected of selling personal details to scammers. Clearly, these are people we can trust with looking after all the info they intend to collect on us.

[Rave]

Is it £51 to renew passport?

Yes, although I coughed up the extra for a 48 page one- I'll almost certainly not need the extra space, but got it just in case. I also paid the fiver or so that the 'check and send' costs at the post office, because I wanted the passport back for the 20th of May (going on a booze cruise) and that apparently speeds things up. In the event I got it back in about a week, and I'm sorted until the end of January 2017 (9 months of validity was carried over from my old passport).

[SilentDeath]

Not if you leave the country first, an option I'm (regretably) being forced to consider.



It's a lot to most people. At the end of the day though, what price freedom?

In other news, DWP workers are suspected of selling personal details to scammers. Clearly, these are people we can trust with looking after all the info they intend to collect on us.

Or you could just not get a new passport. Have you read the ID card act 2006? is there not any other ways they can force you to register..


Will this affect other forms of ID like driving licences? becuase you dont need a passport for everyday life.... and if you want to permenantly leave the country... im sure they would be happy to deport you..

[Nat101]

Thanks for the heads-up Rave. I shall renew mine soon, once I've got the couple internal flights I need to make this month out of the way. Renewing now sounds like a good idea purely from a financial point-of-view, too. Who knows how much the price will increase once the system begins to change, ahead of ID card introduction.

[Mike Fishcake]

No. Did it a month or so back. What's that all about anyway?

Oh I get it.. Hmm. I'm not sure I see what all the fuss is about, if you've got nothing to hide.

I don't understand this opinion 'if you've done nothing wrong - you've got nothing to worry about'.

Never done anything legally dubious in your life have you? Never copied software or music? Never smoked/drank underage? Never gone over the speed limit in your car?
Take, for example, the idea that was suggested a while ago about all cars being fitted with GPS units to monitor speed and make sure you didn't break the speed limit?

The point I'm making is that everybody at some point has done something that's technically legally 'wrong', usually something that's so minor that you don't consider it to be a big deal, it's human nature to bend the rules occasionally.

You also have to bear in mind that there will be people in charge of the data. There will be people you don't know who are able to trawl through your records and find stuff out. Most of them will probably be honest or not really bothered, but, how many people do you know at work that try and find stuff out that they shouldn't know for a laugh?

I'm not saying 'get rid of the police'. I am saying that the Police should be there to serve us, not watch us with a beady eye just in case we do something wrong. No legal system is going to be 100% watertight. There will never be a legal system that will stop all crime. They should concentrate on removing some of the red tape - not creating more work for a decreasing force.

[Koolpc]

I think ID cards are a good idea. Sort out the scum and the immigrants etc etc.

[Funkstar]

Just to counter that Koolpc, i don't believe it will accomplish anything near what they are selling it as.

Those without ID cards will still be able to live below the radar, just as they do now. Illegal imigrants that don't have ID cards won't suddenly be identified and deported.

[Koolpc]

Just to counter that Koolpc, i don't believe it will accomplish anything near what they are selling it as.

Those without ID cards will still be able to live below the radar, just as they do now. Illegal imigrants that don't have ID cards won't suddenly be identified and deported.

I know, shame that. All illegal immigrants should be deported! This country is going to the dogs!

[Funkstar]

We are the most afluent country in Europe, so it can't be all that bad.

[dave87]

and we don't have students rioting in the streets.

I don't honestly see a problem with the ID cards, it will just make our lives easier - think of the driving license, passport, etc all on one card, much easier. But also much easier to lose