U.K. News item

[Eagle]

I just came across this article in The Daily Mail - www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=493912&in_page_id=1770.

My first impression was that although it's not April 1st, this must be a joke. If this is in fact true, I'd better plan a few more visits to the U.K. before this system is implemented, because I WON'T be travelling there afterwards! I won't put up with such oppressive nonsense just to visit a country!!! It would seem that those behind this initiative aren't too interested in the loss of tourist dollars / pounds (I suspect the tourism drop might be substantial)?

It will interesting to see whether saner attitudes will prevail?

Happy travels (hopefully)!

[WillTravel]

Eagle, I was reading that this might not be as labour-intensive as it looks, as many of these questions are immediately evident when you buy an airline ticket and then check in. But it does look intimidating none the less.

[me]

don'know, Eagle. that Daily Mail site seems rather dodgy.

with content that seems to cross into trashy tabloid material, is the info there reliable?

[Eagle]

David, hopefully there's some grain of truth in the news material? I suspect the new security plans aren't finalized yet, so I guess we'll have to wait and see what the final version is. In posting the note, I was hoping some of our members (especially those in the U.K.) might be able to provide a bit of further information.

[me]

did a web search, Daily Mail and FOX News are the only hits. [and the FOX story is reporting on the Daily Mail report]

i'd suggest we wait & see if more mainline news sources pick up on the story. neither FOX News nor Daily Mail reports are broadsheet material.

[MuvverRussia]

Daily Mail is all about right wing, sensationalist trash, packaged in a way to appeal to the middle classes.

However, as WillTravel says, the vast, vast majority of that data is already collected and used by the security services. It's hardly anything different to what countries like the US (the US visa waiver and customs declaration forms are pretty much the same as this) or Spain ask for and really isn't that invasive.

Personally, I'm in favour of anything that leads to improved security. Furthermore, in terms of decreased tourist revenue, I'm sure that the strong GBP and the correspondingly weak USD is having more of a negative impact upon tourism choices than this kind of thing.

[madamtrashheap]

muvverrussia said:

Daily Mail is all about right wing, sensationalist trash, packaged in a way to appeal to the middle classes.

Bingo!
It was most likely a slow news day and something needed jucing up for a reactionary story. Bless the media!

And yes, I'm all for security upgrades too: in early 2002, I (being the rebel that I am ) demanded that all of us boarding a flight at Gatwick to Rome have our shoes checked - at that stage they were just asking men to remove their shoes, clearly a problem (that rectified itself soon after) that the authorities believe only men were a concern for security. It caused a bit of a stir for ground staff, but I found out that I wasn't the only one who thought this way and soon the whole plane had their shoes off for inspection, voluntarily!