To expect that our new passports will be printed in the UK

Have you read my posts DJ ? I really can’t spell it out any clearer. I am suspicious of the massive price difference ! Yes I am worried about jobs in Gateshead (I’m surprised that your not) but I am more worried about where Gemalto got their price from? Can they really do it £120 million cheaper? Are they being subsidised by the French government to get the work at any price?

Perhaps De La Rue became too complacent, and put in a higher bid than they needed to. It's not unknown for that to happen.

I’m not assuming . I am asking how/why such an enormous difference in price . Simple really .

Of course I've read your posts.
You said how could a foreign company be printing OUR passports in your first post.
You seem to be trying to forget that.

You voted to leave the EU with the promise that we would be a more open country, free trade across the world.
Believe it or not that does include France and Holland as well as the USA and China.

Really ? They have manufacturing facilities all over the world, they print for several different countries etc. Are you suggesting they are rip off merchants ?

Gemalto aren’t even set up to print passports (yet) does that not make it seem a teensy bit suspicious to you ?

I’m not trying to forget anything. I just don’t trust the Gemalto bid and yes I’m concerned about jobs in the Gateshead plant too.

I didn’t bloody well vote to leave the EU so you can take that back pronto ! You must’ve written that down wrong in your little book.

Where passports are made in their own countries EU countries usually have state owned companies making them.

Now that sounds good to me, but it won't to you, gillybob.
I got that information from the Express.
The fail has a petition for you to sign.

I haven't got a little book. If I had I wouldn't have got it wrong, so sorry, just a defective memory.

Accepted. Thank you .

No need for state owned passport printers at all. We have got a perfectly good set up with De La Rue (in business since 1821) . I want to see how Gemalto are able to do it £120 million poiund cheaper and can’t understand why no one else seems suspicious of such a massive price difference.

Are they planning on printing our passports in their Polish facility ? Now that would keep the prices down . The plot thickens.

gillybob
Your not alone with your suspicions. There are many of us who know that there are eu rules for the plebs but different rules for the French and Germans.

Phew . I’m relieved to know that Petra I was starting to think I was becoming paranoid .

No, the same rules everywhere. It's just that our government interprets them differently.
Complaints about passports have included the fact that we had to have red passports. We didn't. It was a recommendation, not a rule. We could have kept the original colour, and then all this fuss wouldn't be happening.

I doubt many people really care what colour our passports are . I certainly don’t .

DJ We could have kept the original colour, and then all this fuss wouldn't be happening

Really?!! Surely the 'fuss' is about the fact that it's being printed abroad, plus the potential loss of jobs in Gateshead?

"De La Rue is the largest commercial passport manufacturer in the world and supplies passports to more than 40 countries around the world. It has been producing British passports from its Gateshead factory for the last 10 years and last year produced its 40 millionth document.

Around 600 people work at the Gateshead plant, around 100 of them in the passport division. Mr Sutherland refused to say whether losing the contract would put jobs at risk but did say the company would have to find new work."

De La Rue obviously put in bids for contracts in 40 other countries and won them. They know what the bidding process entails.

But not if they are bidding against .....dare I say cheaters !

Or in other words a company being financially backed by their government, a company outsourcing to Poland , a company who will ask for more money when they realise they can’t do it , a company who could easily deliberately hold back goods until they are paid more... the list goes on and on.

What are the different rules for French and Germans? What about Italians? there are certainly different rules for the UK ( e.g no Euro, no Shengen etc)

Is it maybe that we tend to stick to them and others don’t ?

So do you think that every company that got a contract instead of you did it by cheating, gillybob?
I think you ought to be careful what you are saying.
You seem to be more het up about it than De La Rue.
They just say they will have to look for more work, and I bet they don't just look in the UK.

What rules exactly do we stick to that others don't?

No absolutely not ! But if there was such a massive price difference of £120 million ( yikes) I would be a tiny bit suspicious of dirty dealings or not quoting like for like .

Can’t belive you can’t see that DJ .

Germany stuck two fingers up by not sticking to growth rate rules for years and France did the same by not sticking to their budget.

How does that impact on us exactly? What were the reasons behind it? Has the UK stuck to all the "rules"? Evidence? what rules have we stuck to we didn't want to? I think we made up our own "special" rules didn't we because we didn't want to stick to them? Do two wrongs make a right?