Passport service blocks ID dodgers
With ID cards now seemingly inevitable (half-hearted promises from the Conservatives don’t count) the thoughts of those of us who aren’t keen to be numbered and recorded by the government turn to how to avoid our fate. The most obvious tactic is to get a passport just prior to the database and passport package becoming law. However it seems that the UK Immigration and Passport Service (err.. the UKIP service?) are one step ahead and quietly changed their conditions for renewal of a passport to prevent this:
“You do not have to wait until your passport is nearly expired to renew it, but we can add no more than nine months unexpired validity from the old passport to the new one. You can renew your passport whenever you wish, but you must pay the full fee and no refund can be given on the unexpired validity in the old passport.”
After this change was reported the offending paragraph was quietly changed back but it does show that the passport service are aware that people are going to try and avoid going on the database.
Of course after the next election all bets are off with Labour being free of their manifesto commitment to non-compulsary ID cards. Whether that means we’ll see ID card enforcers hunting down groups of resistors with giant nets and black helicopters is anyones guess.
More at The Register.