Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

The police wanted them. There were three going cheap. He decided to buy them as the price new is huge. Useful for giving the Socialist Worker Party a good soaking if they get a bit upperty during their demos.

i certainly see nothing wrong with either the concept or having them in reserve ..... anyway, it'll be a good, unusual and salutary experience for the great unwashed

The funny thing is that the taxi demo has caused an 850% increase in sign ups for Uber taxi. Many people only heard about the Uber app because of the black cabs gridlock today. Many people are going to use it because of the traffic jams that the cabs caused. Uber is cheaper as well.

Max,

Campers etc. are expensive unless being used frequently.

Mine was bought after I retired and allowed me to do what I had promised myself to do 50 years earlier.

Allowed me to travel over France Spain Portugal and Belgium and spend long periods and meet old friends.

A very happy, or contented period.


=========


Water cannons.

Bloody stupid idea.

Good old British standards.

I wonder who Boris is appealing to with other peoples money.

He is a B. stuntman.

Probably this is my last year of using it, unless my grandson tells me to keep it for one more year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9XLWrCi6DE

Hays youve missed this one and 3 others.

2.Hundreds of thousands hit by benefits backlog

Anyway your answers were all silly.

Just ask the poor sods at the passport offices.
Moles leaking their is complete chaos in the department.

Ministers intervene to prevent relaxation of checks at Passport Office
Exclusive Ministers force U-turn by officials and order relaxation to be withdrawn after Guardian revelations

Rajeev Syal
The Guardian, Thursday 12 June 2014

Ministers were forced to intervene in the working of the chaotic Passport Office after the Guardian revealed that managers had ordered staff to relax security checks on applicants for British passports from abroad in an effort to reduce a backlog of at least 30,000 applications.

A briefing note sent to staff on Monday told Passport Office workers to drop checks on countersignatories, as well as requirements for evidence of addresses and letters of confirmation from employers and accountants.

An hour after the leaked document was published on the Guardian's website on Wednesday night, the Home Office issued a terse statement saying that ministers had no knowledge of the instructions and had ordered managers at the Passport Office to withdraw it immediately.

The intervention will be an acute embarrassment to the home secretary, Theresa May, who has until now tried to maintain that she has been on top of the situation within the Passport Office.

On Wednesday, David Cameron blamed the confusion on the fact that the Passport Office was facing 300,000 more applications than usual and told the Commons: "The Home Office has been on this from the very start."

The developments will also increase pressure on Paul Pugh, the interim head of the Office, who has until now maintained that there is no "backlog" of cases.

The Passport Office was on Wednesday given 100 more staff by the Home Office in an effort to clear its backlog of applications, which are causing people to delay or miss holidays unless they pay £55 to have their cases fast-tracked.

But the briefing note revealed that behind the scenes, processes are also being transformed to cut the delays. It says the changes are required to achieve the right balance between "customer service, public protection and organisational requirements", and that "these changes are being published now in light of the need to speed up turnaround times".

The briefing note, written by the Passport Office's policy team and entitled Overseas Policy and Procedure Changes, begins by listing a number of policy changes and informs staff that they can now relax checks if an applicant from abroad asks for a passport to be sent to an alternative address.

In these cases, evidence of a link to that address will no longer be mandatory and the applicant will no longer have to sign a disclaimer form. The document states: "It has been agreed that, where an applicant provides an alternative address, a separate 'disclaimer' and evidence of a link to that address will no longer be mandatory if there are no other concerns or fraud indicators."

Staff sources claim the change could aid a fraudster who has applied for a document. Checks on countersignatories – a person of good standing or in a recognised profession who vouches for an applicant – have also been relaxed. The note says that a photocopy or scan of national ID cards from many European countries or Hong Kong will now be allowed as proof of a countersignatory's identity.

"On a discretionary basis, a photocopy or emailed scan of a countersignatory's current valid national identity card can be accepted instead of a passport copy, if the card is issued from one of the countries listed below to one of their nationals," the document says.

According to the note, if an applicant is seeking a second passport – which many frequent flyers use so that they can travel on one document whilst applying for entry with another – staff no longer need to seek a letter confirming their status from an employer or accountant.

"For an application for a first additional passport where the applicant has provided their passport, the examiner can use their discretion to not seek a letter of confirmation from an employer where other information indicates that the applicant is eligible for an additional passport," it says.

Previously, the Passport Office has strictly enforced a requirement for a letter of confirmation from an employer or accountant. Sources say the change raises the possibility of identity theft because it could allow a fraudster who has stolen a UK passport to apply for a second.

Speaking before ministers intervened, Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said the briefing showed the government was in denial about the state of the crisis and had been reduced to scaling back vital checks. "This is seriously chaotic … If this is what the prime minister meant by getting a grip on the situation, he needs to think again," she said. Mark Serwotka, head of the PCS union, which represents many Passport Office staff, said: "The Home Office now has some very serious questions to answer about whether security is being compromised and whether passports could be more easily obtained by criminals."

The Home Office last year cut several passport offices within foreign embassies at an annual saving of £20m and moved work to centres in Liverpool, Durham and Belfast. The decision was also intended to boost security, as it was considered too risky to send blank passport books abroad.

Downing Street confirmed that hundreds of extra staff had been deployed to deal with the backlog and offices would open seven days a week from 7am until midnight, after leaked photographs showed boxes of applications piling up in temporary storage in the Liverpool office.

Last week the Guardian disclosed that a quarter of staff employed to detect fraud, as well as others who usually interview suspect applicants, had been asked to process the delayed applications.

Ed Miliband told the Commons on Wednesday that the problem had been caused by cuts and a failure by May to keep watch as she was bickering with the education secretary, Michael Gove. "Tens of thousands of people are finding their holidays are being cancelled because they are not actually getting a passport," he said.

A Home Office spokesman said: "Ministers were unaware of this document and have instructed Her Majesty's Passport Office to withdraw it immediately."

Ed Miliband told the Commons on Wednesday that the problem had been caused by cuts and a failure by May to keep watch as she was bickering with the education secretary, Michael Gove. "Tens of thousands of people are finding their holidays are being cancelled because they are not actually getting a passport," he said.

Why would tens of thousands of people find their holidays were being cancelled when the problem is supposedly only affecting around 30,000 people who are applying from abroad?

Really, that Ed Millibland is every bit as thick as Fishfinger and the other commies on this thread.

Oh, and fwiw, my husband and I have both renewed our passports recently and we were initially quite concerned as we only have a narrow window of being in the UK between early April and mid June, and we needed them back promptly. The service was fantastic. We both got a text from the Passport Office after about 3 days to acknowledge receipt. The payments were processed after about a week. We got another text after a fortnight to say the passports were being dispatched. And the passports were delivered by courier a couple of days thereafter.

Problem? Maybe in some Labour activists' heads. But otherwise - NO!

this passport backlog is certainly a pretty poor show (old chap!), but scarcely of even nationwide importance

i wonder how many passports are delayed because the applicant was cutting things pretty fine anyway in what is obviously a period of very high demand - e.g. how many applications made within say 8 weeks of the required usage

i'm certainly delighted that checks are not being slackened, for that really could have serious implications

The passport fiasco is just a sideshow, what bad news are they hiding?

It's not as if you need a passport to get into the UK anyway, ask any illegal.

Boris and his water pistol!

Passports.

What crisis?

These are the con party's efficiency cuts.

I wonder how many more cons have passed through the borders?

rubbish fred ..... passport office has apparently lost just 600 staff over the last 4 years
this is just a "silly season" story from which not a great deal of political capital can even be manufactured

All!!!!!!!!! if this isnt a Passport Crisis why are the Right Wing Press and Media reporting it as so. ?????????

Every front page and every news headlines.

Lets stop talking silly Tories.

Did you not see the rest room full of thousands of passport files on the evening news last night.

of course it does .... it's the silly season and it's fun copy for the papers

Passports have always been a problem. There used to be passport crises every year. You had to allow at least 6 weeks. One of the causes is that expats cannot get their passports locally in their own countries now because of the chip system. They have to apply to UK. It is a temporary fuss. It is just a lack of other stories that makes the papers interested.

6 weeks Hays, 6 weeks is nothing at the moment.

You need to catch up.

Its due to government austerity cuts that werent necessary.

stop rattling sticky and go out and enjoy the sunshine :-)