Originally Posted by
Donkey497
Despite the dogma - every thing & every person DOES NOT have to transit London.
Unfortunately it's still the same UKBA outside of London.
Waited over 1hr coming into MAN this weekend, and could write for that long on the systemic and mangement failings viewed from that queue. Nothing to do with job losses or funding cuts - both staff and expensive technology investement were clearly badly managed for coping with peak (holiday season) load.
The 1hr+ wait was in the native / EU queue of course, the Johnny Foreigner queue was observed at about 5 mins max.
You could easily conclude that UKBA's aim is to admit foreigners as easily as possible while making it so miserable for UK citizens to return that they don't bother, but I'd go with Hanlons razor against that. If UKBA ever invite you for a drink I wouldn't bother going, even if the venue is a brewery...