I really resent the implication that I am a terrorist. Let me explain...
Having booked and paid for domestic flight between Birmingham and Edinburgh, I was then informed that I would need take Photo ID in order to check-in. I was not aware of this (so maybe mea culpa, admittedly), but it seems they're happy to take hundreds of pounds from my credit card with acceptable credentials.
Ordinarily ID wouldn't be a problem. However, my Driving Licence and Passport are both with the DVLA, and, understandably, they are unable to find them amongst the many pieces of paper they have. They're due back after the flight.
I have no other form of photo ID, and in the absence of any other ideas (Blockbuster?, The Penge Occasional Players Society?) I'm going to have to fork out ?25 for a 'CitizenCard'. As someone opposed to the Government's forthcoming compulsory ID card scheme, joining a voluntarty programme is anathema to me.
So despite the opportunities afforded by low-cost air travel, all this is to protect my civil liberties, because I might be a terrorist, when all I'm likely to do is Sudoku.
Bah!
M@
To be fair, I can't remember a time when you didn't need photo ID for domestic flights. For a while they went mental and insisted you take your passport, but now they're back to driving licences and the like.
Reading that back it occurs to me that this means they don't necessarily think your an Islamic terrorist. You could be an old-fashioned Provo.
It wasn't required on the last flight I was on (liverpool to london).
I'm sure I just showed them my ticket and they checked me in. I had ID on me, but noone asked for it.
Hardly a worthy rant seeing as the id requirement is stated in their booking terms. Far more annoying is the dipsticks who hold up the queue arguing about forgotten/non-existent ids!
And they could hardly wave you through because you don't look like a terrorist and then shake down the muslim behind you - the bro-ha-ha that would cause!
Far more worth a rant are those dicks who stand two abreast on the escalator so you can't get by them - it's not a pleasure ride you know!
My personal pet hate is the fact that out of date identification documents aren't considered proof of ID. e.g. for domestic travel, obtaining mortgage fnance, etc.
If the damn thing was issued by a government office, it's got my bloody photo in it, and it was considered adequate evidence of my ID the day before the document expires, it should be evidence enough of who I am the day after it has expired. As far as I'm concerned, in its primary function, a passport is an identity document for foreign travel. A driving licence is primarily a document that proves I am eligible to drive a motor vehicle. If either document becomes out of date, then it is my entitlement to travel abroad as a British subject and my eligibility to drive a car that is called into question, not the link between the document and my identity.
"Does that photo look like me?"
"Yes"
"Do you think that passport or driving licence is mine, and that I am really the person named on that document?"
"Yes"
"Will that do as ID, to prove that I am who I say I am, bearing in mind I'm not planning to go abroad or drive a car?"
"No"
"Why not?"
"Because it's out of date"
:: Hardly a worthy rant seeing as the id requirement is stated in their booking terms.r
Well if it was, I missed it. The first I knew about it was as a reminder on the "Thank You for Booking" page.
And now, when I come to email a pic to "CitizenCard" I find my scanner's dead.
And, for this damn thing, I now have to find someone to vouch for me from a profession as per their prescribed list...
Your doctor - I don't have one
Your dentist - I can't find an NHS one
Your bank manager - has never met me
Your solicitor - I have a solicitor?
Your accountant - occasionally sends me an invoice
Any Police Officer - Any police officer? Det Sgt John Davidson perchance?
Sadly My Mate Tom isn't an option, but the idea that a mere job title makes someone more morally sound than myself rankles. I'm a nice guy, I like theatre and poetry - and I'm going for a meeting with a charity fer Chrissakes!
Anyway, this is just me seeking attention to cover for my inability to contribute to the Your 2000AD Art #1 - July thread... sorry.
Meh.
M@
"the idea that a mere job title makes someone more morally sound than myself rankles"
Really is a rather old-fashioned idea, isn't it? You can forget about equality, then. This list of exceptional persons seems to have been drawn up in the days when there was seen to be an illiterate proletarian mass that needed to be supervised by their betters and could not be trusted to vouch for one another or they would abuse the privilege. Says a lot about our society that we still cling to such notions of social distinction.
Dentist is a new one on me, I must admit. Physiotherapists, firefighters and nursery nurses are presumably a shifty lot who can't be trusted as character witnesses.
Usher, that's something that has only changed pretty recently. One of the first times I flew anywhere in the UK with my girlfriend they were quite happy to accept her expired one (so long as it was only a year or so old.)
Mb, he list of people who can supposedly countersign a passport or whatever is indeed a ridiculous throwback to the days when the lower orders had to know their place. Interestingly, I see Meenester doesn't feature anymore.
For what it's worth, in years gone by my whole family's passports were signed by a bloke who goes in the local pub who's an engineer (generally, anyone with a professional qualification is fine.)
Not sure I 100% agree with that. The choice of professions to sign off your application seems to me to be restricted to persons who should have access to records on you going back a long way (medical, financial, criminal) and thus be able to vouch for your long-term existence within the British system. That'd be why priests don't get to do it any more - what with declining church attendance and increased population mobility, it's no longer the case for most of us that our local priest can check for our christening/confirmation record.
If you think this situation is bad, just wait until the UK sleepwalks into ID cards for all, followed by microchipping of infants (for their safety, obviously, and not at all for life-long monitoring purposes).
I'm amazed how many people are pro-ID cards or just don't care. Perhaps 1984 should be republished as 2007 and be made compulsory reading.
I don't understand why anyone would want to put themselves through the whole airport thing for a short domestic journey when there's a perfectly good megabus available for a quid.
On the ID subject, my boss confiscated a bunch of the most comically fake ID's the world has ever seen recently. I'll see if I cant pinch them for our entertainment pleasure...
often seen on buses
"Luxury Travel"
lies lies lies
On the subject of lies:
it's not a pleasure ride you know!
It is for some of us.
they seem to accept bus pass photo id if you have one erm