No Passport

[susanxx]

How many people don't have a passport and are then looked down upon or disbelieved? Just because I have no desire to travel to other countries why am I treated with disgust and then I have a real problem proving I am me! If proof is an everyday problem then we should have gone ahead with ID cards shouldn't we?

[susanxx]

DaisyNonna sorry can't help on that one but my problems have really escalated since having to move twice in less than 6 months. Proving things is very frustrating when you were born and have lived within a 50 mile radius of your birth place for almost 60 years. ABerrant, this didn't start out as a rant merely a comment on the perception of society that a person should have a passport just to prove to officialdom that one exists.

[DaisyNonna]

Eddie, why should I lie? I do not have a driving licence. I do not drive. I have no intention of driving.

[Maydup]

Do you have a bus pass? If not get one anyway just to use as id in circumstances like these. Ours have photo id assuming yours do too.

[wildwood]

Why are so many people opposed to an ID card? The new passports have an electronic chip in it that even contains the distance between your eyes/ears etc. so are just as likely to be manipulated as ID cards would have been.

Nowadays, cameras can show where you do your shopping or where you were driving. Credit cards can show where you spend you money and on what. Communication industry can tell who you were speaking to and what you are looking at on your computer/iphone.

[mikey4444]

Susanxx. I am a bit puzzled here. How is treating you with disgust, and why ?

I worked as a financial adviser for many years. When people wanted to invest or save, we were obliged to see some kind of identity, in order to comply with money-laundering rules. If people didn't have a passport, than that wasn't a problem, as we asked for alternative forms of ID instead.

There is a widely misconceived opinion in Britain the nearly everybody goes abroad for their holiday. No they don't ! Most people don't go on holiday at all, or if they do, its to other parts of Britain.

[chakka35]

Though normally a law-abiding citizen I would have been one of the huge number who would have refused to carry compulsory ID cards.
Quite apart from the principle of it, the joke was that in order to obtain an ID card I would have had to prove my identity by other means. But if I could do that, then I didn't need an ID card!

I knew that we would never adopt such an oppressive system. We're British, for heaven's sake.

[LazyGun]

My mum had a similar issue with proof of identity recently, as she was setting up a new savings account with The Halifax. This did cause a fair degree of frustration for her as well - a frustration borne out of a feeling of impotence and lack of information, more than anything else I think.

When she presented her passport, it was rejected since it had expired, although the photo in the passport was recent enough that it was recognisably her. She does not and has never driven, so does not have a driving licence, and we were kind of stuck. According to her they were not especially helpful in itemising exactly what proofs of identity would be considered acceptable to them, so in the end she presented them with a raft of items - utility bill ( joint names) bank statement, bus pass, expired passport ID and told them to pick which ones they would accept. Still not absolutely sure which of those items they did deem acceptable - I think they were just glad to be rid of her, since her frustration with the system was causing holshiness :)