Any UK Border Force or Passport staffing here
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
Age: 63
Posts: 1,257
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I find that UK Passport at Manchester involves more often than not a chat with an officer. I don’t use LHR much but was there in December and it worked fine.
Cheers
Mr Mac
Cheers
Mr Mac
I haven't found one yet that works at LHR, MAN, GLA, EDI or ABN.
Recently I've been flying in and out of EDI every few weeks and it is so annoying being told to queue up for the e-gate when you know it won't work and when you ask to just go to a person they tell you no.
At Christmas I did suggest to one of the jobsworth "cattle handlers" that I would bet them £10 that the e-gate wouldn't work with my passport - that seemed to shut them up.
Recently I've been flying in and out of EDI every few weeks and it is so annoying being told to queue up for the e-gate when you know it won't work and when you ask to just go to a person they tell you no.
At Christmas I did suggest to one of the jobsworth "cattle handlers" that I would bet them £10 that the e-gate wouldn't work with my passport - that seemed to shut them up.
The people telling arriving pax to queue up... do they have any formal legal authority besides wearing bright pink/yellow/green/orange vests ? As far as I'm aware they do not work for police, customs or Border Force. I've seen lots of people at building sites wearing similiar vests, but they don't normally have any legal powers beyond ordinary citizens.
Paxing All Over The World
If you know the gate won't (or probably won't) work - but are directed to the queue: When you are the next person for the e-gate, just turn and go straight to the human. This at least saves waiting for the gate to reject you.
Why join the e-gate queue at all if you know it is not going to work ? AFAIK, the people directing you to the e-gate queue have no power of arrest and have probably been told not to touch a passenger physically without consent for fear of a legal claim of assault. Everything will be on camera, so if they start pulling or pushing you physically, the evidence is readily available. Would be extremely difficult to make a charge of terrorism stick against a person refusing to join the e-gate queue and choosing the manual queue instead.
If I knew my passport would (with very high probability) not work in the e gates, I would walk straight past the cattle handler, join the manual queue and just not say anything at all to person telling me to join other queue. It's extremely difficult for a person without the power of arrest to (legally) do anything against you when you join a valid queue peacefully - you just have to be willing to call a person's bluff occasionally.
(Note - Mrs Johnson occasionally describes me as an aggressive little s**t who gets away with stuff)
If I knew my passport would (with very high probability) not work in the e gates, I would walk straight past the cattle handler, join the manual queue and just not say anything at all to person telling me to join other queue. It's extremely difficult for a person without the power of arrest to (legally) do anything against you when you join a valid queue peacefully - you just have to be willing to call a person's bluff occasionally.
(Note - Mrs Johnson occasionally describes me as an aggressive little s**t who gets away with stuff)
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"Why join the e-gate queue at all if you know it is not going to work ? AFAIK, the people directing you to the e-gate queue have no power of arrest and have probably been told not to touch a passenger physically without consent for fear of a legal claim of assault. Everything will be on camera, so if they start pulling or pushing you physically, the evidence is readily available. Would be extremely difficult to make a charge of terrorism stick against a person refusing to join the e-gate queue and choosing the manual queue instead."
Because I want to get out ASAP - not spend 4 hours in a small room waiting for an expensive lawyer to "enforce my rights" - and be splashed all over Social Media
Because I want to get out ASAP - not spend 4 hours in a small room waiting for an expensive lawyer to "enforce my rights" - and be splashed all over Social Media
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