Ferry giant refuses ID card

Rent-a-Quote

"People have made numerous journeys around Europe using their identity cards and this seems to be an isolated incident."

I assume they're talking about UK citizens here. If so, how many have ID cards, and have they actually had them long enough to make numerous journeys around Europe? Sounds like someone's pulled out one of next year's excuses a bit early.

Two things...

First, why did the blithering idiot leave his passport at home? You know its a trial, its unproven and people havent heard of it. Just take your passport along and you can save a lot of trouble.

Second, why would P&O themselves be in charge of border control? Wouldnt HMRC want to be represented? if not, why didnt they let them know about it?

Not that, you know, there hasnt been a lot of press about these cards. I mean, obviously nobody at P&O reads either the newspapers or Internet news sites.

no surprise

If I had an ID card, I would feel like a second-class citizen too, as it would have been forced upon me on pain of death.

ID card? Never heard of it

It is worrying that people in the travel business and engaged in the checking of documents don't know what does or does not constitute valid identification. One would have thought that they might actually express an interest in things like the ID card fiasco, given its relevance to their work. if they cannot identify a UK ID card, do they really know what the cards from other EU states look like - can they spot a fake?

The new ID card Scheme...

will keep you in this country...forever. Great start for the whizz-wonderful ID card scheme.

Gordon brown was seen on TV today in an interview commenting:

"All your travel plans are belong to us..."

Idiot

This man had a perfectly good passport and chose to be a smartarse and travel with an experimental piece of plastic. What did he hope to prove, exactly?

He said he was made to feel "like a second-class citizen" - well I'm not surprised; he was carrying second class travel documents.

And what of tw@ *volunteers* for an ID card anyway? No sympathy.

There is no limit to the incompetence behind this system

Would you take a job working for the identity and passport "service"? Nor would I. They only employ people who are very stupid and nasty, because that's all they can get. And this sort of thing is the result. Why doesn't the government admit it's dead and kill it off, instead of wasting our money keeping these useless people in useless jobs?

Mr.

I'm totally against the ID card, but at least it's helping to disprove the myth that EU citizens need a passport to travel within the EU

Good old Gov' does it again.

The words 'Pissup' and 'Brewery' spring to mind. Again.

ID Cards work!

"He told the BBC that the incident left him feeling humiliated and "like a second-class citizen"

Isn't that exactly the purpose of them?

(To be fair I'd feel quite humiliated if it came out that I had voluntarily opted to have an ID card, too)

prize idiot

"Eastwood told the BBC that the incident left him feeling humiliated and "like a second-class citizen".

He should feel like a first class pillock for being stupid enough to sign-up for an ID card.

I am glad he feels humiliated, he should. When the cattle rolls up for him he will no doubt climb onto it himself sporting a gay little smile on his face, with nary a concern for where destiny may take him!

if they offered a refund then they must be in the wrong

This is perfect government thinking, there is no such thing as good will anymore, there is no such thing as discretion and if there is any suspicion then it must be guilt and all the silly databases in UK are there solely to prove this!

Muppets.

If just once a politician, any politician said "you know what, we screwed up", then faith in politics might just go up a little, but as long as they always stick to the "I'm right it must be someone else" then we just treat them like the liars they are!!!

Which begs the question ...

"Dutch passengers who used a national identity card from The Netherlands were allowed passage on the same ferry Eastwood had hoped to travel on"

Assuming one can travel out on a UK ID Card, what's the chance of being able to travel back from the foreign country on one ? If our own staff don't recognise it why would those in foreign ports ?

Customs and excise had enough problems in aberdeen

Customs and Excise or what ever they are called these days had enough trouble recognizing a British seaman card in Aberdeen airport ,years ago, never mind a new fangled nu labour enslavement card on trial. (i had to use a seaman card as my passport was off having visa added to it at the time) up the revolution brother and sisters Imagine theres no countries .....

Maybe missing the point?

Maybe the bloke in question set out in the full expectation that the border control numpties wouldn't know a UK ID card from their own behinds? If I was living in Manchester I'd be tempted to get one just for the entertainment value in demonstrating just how incompetent the government has been in rolling out their pet project whenever I attempted to use it. Or I suppose I could get a life, but where would be the fun in that?

Carriers responsibility

Carriers are responsibile for ensuring their travellers have adequate identification to get INTO their destination country because they are liable for the costs of repatriation. If P&O weren't sure that French or Dutch officials would accept the UK ID card, then they were absolutly right to refuse travel.

@whatithink

I suspect that the people who work for the Identity and Passport Service are neither "very stupid" or "nasty"

They may be carrying out the instructions of the lawfully elected Government , who are very stupid and nasty" but IPS did not dream up this half baked idea. I fear you are shooting the messenger.

Another perspective

I'm not aware of all the details and I suspect neither are many others but maybe all those calling this chap a blithering idiot should consider that this was a deliberate action in order to highlight the issue and take a poke at the government, if so then has acheived what he set out to do. Just as I, if I were resident in the UK I would report to the police any cinema showing the latest St. Trinians film and all the people who had gone to watch it to highlight the absurdity of the new extreme porn laws. I wish someone would do this.

@ Jim Booth

You haven't actually tried to get into this country recently have you? It's like a high security problem. Please don't insult us with racist lies about how its easy to get in.

Isolated incident

Of course it's an "isolated incident". There's only about half a dozen people with a card and only one of those has been stupid enough to try and use it...

The guy's done nothing wrong at all

There's a lot of hostility towards Mr Eastwood in these comments for some bizarre reason. As I've said before, this is The Reg, not the bloody Daily Mail so engage your brains before hitting reply. Mr Easwtood has an ID card and the ID card is an official document which permits travel within the European Economic Area. Rotterdam is part of it. He should have been allowed to travel with his card - it's as simple as that. He's not a "muppet" or an "idiot" or "naive" and has done absolutely nothing wrong.

The merits of the ID card is an entirely separate debate which will run for years. It has no bearing on this incident and Mr Eastwood has clearly made his own decision.

As for Jim Booth's comment, you ARE exactly the kind of useful idiot the junk tabloids love, spouting racist tinged bollocks about immigration based on something you read next to an X Factor story. Critical thinking, what's that eh, Jim? Do some proper research of your own rather than repeating the rubbish that passes for tabloid 'news'.

'We make reality'

Wasn't that the rather boastful claim the New Labour tendency made around the time of the Iraq war? Evidently the Reality Synthesiser technology beta has taken an bit of a turn for the worse and now no longer works beyond The Bunker, and certainly not as far as the real world or even the private sector. They'll just have to go back to manual mode and start talking bollocks, although they'll have to brush up t0 make it a bit more convincing

Perhaps ministers thought that, because they don't personally have to show any ID to get anywhere, the - rather expensive - Joo Janta Political Peril sensitive Anal Cavity Biometric Profile Analysers they paid for 'just worked', like the sweaty man in the suit told them over that thrillingly Stalinist powerpoint presentation.

"We are speaking to P&O to understand why this happened and ensure that there can be no repeat of it."

Translation: "We are speaking to P&O to understand why they are not fully signed up to Labour's exciting vision for a modern Police State, and to ensure they fully understand the consequences of making us look bad at any time in the future. We assume the cheque toward the election fund and the offer of a couple of directorships for soon-to-be-ex ministers are in the post."

Passports on LEAVING a country, yep it's checked !

When leaving the UK via an airport, passports are checked, first by checkin staff if checking in luggage, and then often at security for bag checking. Then again at the gate.

OK, 2 of these points it airline staff checking.

However, when I travel HOME to the UK from Norway, in order to get into the international departure gate (non Schengen) a proper border control policeman from Norway checks ALL passports on EXIT.

Sure, if we take a flight to Greece, that's in Schengen any passport check is simply an ID check and a valid photo ID is accepted, in Norway that's most bank cards, as they have your person number that IDs you and a photo.

Hey, wait, there's an idea, why have a seperate ID card, when you could simply issue an ID "NUMBER" to people (NI number) and insist that to have a bank card in the UK it must show a confirmed number and photo.

Proves who I am, is linked to a central database with address, any registered vehicles in my name, tax records, etc etc.

Effectively my bank card is the only ID I need until I come home to the UK, where I need my passport.

OK I know having ALL your "government account" details like tax linked in 1 big database is a problem, but then, they surely couldn't fit the entire database on a single CD to lose in the post could they ?

Or could they ?