I have discovered an advantage of Brexit

I’ve gone for the type something bonkers approach.

Luckily I have a long dead Irish grandparent along with hundreds of thousands of others in the U.K. qualify for an Irish passport. Worth every penny. John le Carré got his Irish passport just before he died as a protest.

I am entitled to an Irish passport, but at my age I just can’t be bothered to go through the hassle of proving it. Some of my relations have done so. I regard myself as very much a European, and resent giving up my current passport..

I have to renew my passport soon, purely because I need it as proof of identity. I haven’t got a driving license. I’m not going to be travelling anywhere, so it’s very irritating and expensive.

I was just going to comment on John le Carré. This was a man who worked for MI5 and MI6. He wrote about the human frailty of those in these organisations, so his was no blinkered view of his country. How sad that he should die as his son described, "furious" and disillusioned after Brexit".

My new blue passport looks disappointingly black.

PippaZ

I was just going to comment on John le Carré. This was a man who worked for MI5 and MI6. He wrote about the human frailty of those in these organisations, so his was no blinkered view of his country. How sad that he should die as his son described, "furious" and disillusioned after Brexit".

Yes that is sad.

Yet another 'type and delete' person.

I am half Irish/half British (theres some Scots in me somewhere, as I had a Scottish maidenname) on both sides, but on one side my Irish grandparents were born in England, so do not qualify me for an Irish passport, despite their impeccable Irish lineage. However my one grandfather was born and brought up in Ulster (hence the Scottish surname) so I very much have a foot in both camps.

mokryna yes we made it to France and I spent a week cleaning the house and trying to get two years wisteria growth out of the roof. The house was damp, despite someone coming in every fortnight and putting dehumidifiers in, but it is there in good order and we are now planning our next visit in October.

Me too on the type and delete posting. I sort of thought everyone would do that.

I only show restraint on these types of threads.
I can’t be doing with being insulted.
I waffle away with gay abandon on others. I should probably utilise the delete key a bit more!

If you want stamps in your passport then go somewhere where they do them. I have stamps from ~Turkey is a not too far example.

Hurrah! A Brexit advantage at last.
I type and delete quite a lot.

It is not stamps that I am after it is the ability to be able travel freely and safely around the world that I would like and for everyone else to have as well.

whitewave Me too

?? what a head line! You got me ??

Something just occurred to me. We used to go to Ireland and travel around. Haven’t done so for years. We now have a dog that loves travelling and it had crossed my mind that we could do another tour round Ireland but take the dog with us this time. But I just realised that, to do so I’d have to go through the same sort of rigmarole that I would now have to do if I took her to eg France.

I remember that Spike Milligan also got himself an Irish passport out of protest - something to do with conscription I think, although he did serve in the war.

Seeings as I live in Germany I got myself a German passport a couple of years ago, as did hundreds of other expat Brits. We are used to moving about in the Schengen countries without being stopped and I would not want to hold up travel with others because I have to wait for my passport to be stamped, say, at the Swiss or Turkish borders.

Great now half of us are too scared to travel anywhere anyway and the rest have the faff of getting an acceptable vaccine passport, we can collect passport stamps! What happens if all the pages get stamped up before 10 years?

Maybe they could turn Spinalonga into a holiday island for those of us really worried, immune compromised etc? Where we could all still be extra careful. It might sound bonkers but I’d be happy to pay for a holiday destination where I knew mask wearing, social distancing, vaccine passports etc were mandatory.

MayBee70

Maybe they could turn Spinalonga into a holiday island for those of us really worried, immune compromised etc? Where we could all still be extra careful. It might sound bonkers but I’d be happy to pay for a holiday destination where I knew mask wearing, social distancing, vaccine passports etc were mandatory.

I’d have to travel there like those ladies in the film ( I forget it’s name -Flying down to Rio?) where they stood on the plane’s wings so I wasn’t in a confined tin tube with the bug.

I was brought up to believe that
"Ev'ry cloud has a silver lining"

So thank you, M0nica for finding a sliver of silver!
Not that I'm going anywhere with my red passport which still says EU

Yes, there are many non-EU countries that would stamp my passport, but we try to avoid flying and, having a home in France, we go there quite a lot and otherwise take trains around Europe. There is so much to see there and sun, sea and sand, feature pretty low on my list of holiday requirements. So for the last 30 years, stamps have been few and far between on my passport. Now i am going to get 16 to 20 just going to and from France

When the passport fills, I think you send it back and the passport agency add extra pages.

Unfortunately having an Irish great grandmother doesn’t qualify me for an Irish passport. Annoyingly, Brexit voting dil happily (? Hypocritically) claimed her Irish passport.

Just typed and deleted next bit.

With the stamps in the passports it is to check you do not spend more than your allowed number of days in the Schengen area. You count the days back from when you leave the area. As you will know it must not be more than 90 in the last 180. The border computers are set to do this I believe.
We had ours stamped this week although that should not have been the case as we have permits to live in France. We are however still restricted to the 90 days in the rest of the Shenghan area.

We spend less than 90 days a year in France as we prefer to go frequently but not for long.

I’m currently in France and am not thrilled with the new routine at the border. Coming through Immigration at Ouistreham took twice as long as normal as every passport had to be stamped. (Yes, showing vaccination proof also added time) I know where I’ve travelled without needing a stamp in my passport.