BRITISH PASSPORT RULES ARE CLASSIST!

As we creep ever closer to totalitarian globalism and digital ID, get your head around this amazing battle with red tape that Brits have to endure! Curious? Read on!

I am now completely convinced that the UK Passport office has absolutely no organisational skills and desperately needs help from a very good, computer literate, PA like me! After a protracted telephone call today, I am informed that the UK Passport Office does not keep emails together in any type of file. This necessitates each complainant to repeatedly provide the same information with every email they send.

Tedious? Oh yes! But wait….

There is so much more under the very British bonnet (hood) of this bizarre story!

PART ONE: The background story

Six months ago my home-loving, online worker son decided to apply for a new passport in preparation for a potential visit to his girlfriend in Indonesia. His old one expired in 2014 and was lost since then.

Almost immediately, after £89 had been deducted from his bank account, the online application hit a significant stumbling block. The business person my son had asked to verify his identity was declared ‘unsuitable’ by the Passport Office. Apparently, a sole trader builder is not considered professional enough.

A doctor is also ruled unsuitable since the rules have changed.

My son printed out the list of suggested professionals supplied by the Passport Office and asked me if I knew of a suitable person who has known my son for at least two years, has a British passport and the necessary professional standing. It cannot be a member of our family.

Unfortunately, neither of us were able to think of a single person who qualified. We know of one or two sole traders and small business owners, but none of our personal associates are executives of limited companies registered at Companies House.

After making desperate enquiries we concluded that we could not comply with this part of the requirements and my son phoned the Passport Office to ask how he could proceed in these circumstances. He phoned several times but nobody was able to advise him beyond the strictness of the rules. Eventually he was asked to wait for a letter by mail. He waited more than a month and phoned again. This time he was told that his application had mysteriously expired taking his £89 with it into the void.

The promised letter never appeared.

My son could hardly believe that his money would not be returned and that he had been so royally ripped off. Royally is the operative word there, you understand!

He was very angry. Too angry and baffled to even think of beginning the whole process again. After all, the stumbling block was not going to be any less insurmountable, was it?

It would appear that my son has to make a professional ‘friend’ among the upper middle classes and then nurture that friendship for two years before he can apply for a passport to leave this draconian island prison colony!

I CONTACTED OUR LOCAL MP

To be perfectly honest, I was not expecting much, because our MP is relatively young and new to the job. He is also a Tory, which is an old Irish name for a robber and is now common vernacular for members of the Conservative Party. The Tories are extremely right wing, stiff upper lipped and in power since 2010 in the UK. I think you get the picture. This is the mob who obey the City of London without question, at all times, without fail. They like to privatise everything. They also turn up mob handed when they have to vote to overpay themselves. For other votes they are strangely absent.

I received a sweet quick reply email from my MP’s assistant, Laura. She recommended that we ask the doctor to confirm my son’s identity. So it was totally obvious that Laura was not exactly up-to-date with post Covid developments at the Passport Office. Upon receiving my polite and patient explanation, suddenly she did not want to communicate with me on the grounds of my son’s ‘personal privacy’ and asked that my son communicate with her directly.

My son did not think that the MP’s assistant would be any help at all, even though she did hint that there ought to be a ‘declaration’ he could submit to the Passport Office which would smooth his passage over this monumental stumbling block we had encountered.

I checked the Passport Office website and discovered a helpline to call.

There has to be a way around this red tape, I thought.... and phoned:

A young and very pleasant advisor asked me if the landlord of our local pub could help. I said that my son doesn't drink.

What about a pharmacist? He doesn't do drugs.

A church minister? He doesn't go to church. He isn't even christened.

The Manager of our local shop? We don't know her or him.

Dentist? My son doesn't go to dentists (even though he really should).

This conversation went on and on like that! 💤

In the end (and before I reached the end of my considerable patience) I asked the advisor to flag up the recorded conversation for her superiors because -

THIS NEW RULING IS CLASSIST! 

She was stunned and said, "Pardon?" and I pointed out that working class people on very low incomes or those who work in isolation, online from home do not socialise with civil servants, policemen, officials, or businessmen, etc. 

I remarked that everyone on the list of acceptable co-signers is upper middle class! 

If a person does not have any sort of contact with that class of person then what? 

Are they automatically an OUTCAST? An OUTLAW? A CRIMINAL?

I said that my son is effectively a prisoner in the UK simply because he has cared for me in a very responsible manner for the recent 8 years and prefers a quiet life!

The poor girl was totally baffled.... she had not thought about it that way. She realised that she too might find it rather difficult to name someone who could vouch for her!

She then advised me to make an official complaint in writing online (the irony!) “Working online is what is causing this difficulty in the first place! 🙄” I stated, sighing. Although I was treated with great politeness by this young advisor, she was completely unable to help me because it is the new stricter rules that are the problem, and she cannot do anything about those.

You see how ‘just doing a job’ unquestioningly, permits illogical red tape to tangle us all up in a never ending spiral of frustration? I took a well earned tea-break.

PART TWO: I proceeded to make an official complaint.

In order to raise a complaint (and subsequently reference that complaint at the UK Passport Office) one needs to supply the following information in EVERY communication (no I am not kidding):

·        Full name (applicant’s if different)

·         Application number (if known) 

·         Date of birth

·         Full postal address including post code

·         Telephone number

·         Who or what the complaint is about (full details of complaint)

·         Relationship to applicant if complaint is not about yourself

·         How you would like to be contacted (call-back or in writing)

Answers to all these questions + full details of the complaint were submitted four times before I was finally given an investigation team reference!

patience stretched to the limits

I ADDED THESE COMMENTS TO MY FINAL COMPLAINT:

I am hopeful that something can be resolved because this problem is bigger now that we have to produce current photographic identification for more and more things.

For example, when sending money out of UK via a Post Office Moneygram or Western Union we must produce a current driving licence and a passport.

Registering ONLINE to pay UK tax also demands these two forms of ID, and please note:

Failure to pay tax is a serious criminal offence!

So refusing to supply a British citizen with a passport is potentially creating a criminal who will be fined or imprisoned!

Whatever stunt will our gov pull next? 😵

I am waiting to be asked for ID to go to a public toilet! 🙄 If I could find one….

I HAVE WRITTEN TO MY MP AGAIN TO REPORT THE ABSOLUTE CHAOS AT YOUR END! However, I think this is a situation which merits being referred to the Home Office, because we cannot possibly be the only family affected by this rule change and alarming lack of foresight.

Exasperated.

Frances Leader