Was this really necessary France 🇫🇷?

Maybe they thought they were illegal immigrants dropping in?
😄 I can’t see much harm in having a passport check, but yes I see your point about the MOD, they could have provided a list.

I watched the celebrations, and it seemed to me that the French were showing nothing but hospitality, respect and gratitude for those that turned up.🤷‍♀️

Well they got this bit wrong.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

That’s a bit harsh Siope.

I would think whatever they were doing in France they would need a passport to get in.

Stop this bickering. It’s not about Brexit Siope!

This, a voice of reason on the Telegraph comments just now:

“ Before someone starts on the Brexit rubbish, there is actually no need for NATO soldiers to show passports when crossing borders. They are covered by NATO travel arrangements enshrined in the NATO treaty and all they need is their services ID card an a half page piece of paper per group their unit HQ has stamped called a NATO Travel Order and if they have weapons, who ever is in charge of the group has to have a weapons manifest listing all they have with serial numbers. Most British soldiers - even the ones in Germany, including their wives and children, do not have passports. I had been all over the world with my wife and daughters and to two wars before I had a passport. They do however, have to go through the relevant customs clearance, partculalrly with weapons. That is routine for every country the British Army goes to, on operations or on exercise, including Canada, the US, all of NATO and everywhere else and always has been the case.”

Thank you LLFL.

Ladyleftfieldlover

That’s a bit harsh Siope.

No it's not.

I don’t think this is the day to do a bit of French bashing….also I would imagine there is a massive security operation going on today. It’s a wonderful ceremony and I can’t even begging to imagine how much organisation has gone into it.

Please can we just have some peace and gratitude today?

I find that a bit odd. I don’t know what period the journalist is talking about but as an Army wife who lived and travelled in five different countries between the sixties and the eighties, I had to have both an ID card and a passport. I have it somewhere with all the visa stamps in it. My children also had to have passports. My husband of course had his service ID card but also had a passport. Perhaps someone will tell me if I have been dreaming this?

It’s the rules. Why nitpick on today of all days? Did you see the paratroopers complaining?

Siope

So you’d be okay if a few hundred young male foreigners arrived onto British soil and were just allowed in with no checks?

We are no longer in the EU; we cannot just pop in and out as if we are.

Honestly, I sometimes wonder if you ever understood what you were actually voting for in the referendum.

What do these paratroopers look like to you.

Oreo

Maybe they thought they were illegal immigrants dropping in?
😄 I can’t see much harm in having a passport check, but yes I see your point about the MOD, they could have provided a list.

Of course their credentials had to be checked, it would be unwise not to have done so.

I think the ceremony went really well and the elderly D-Day veterans were given the status they deserved, well done France.

Another try.

I'm more concerned why Macron keeps turning up late to major events in his own country? Has he got a dodgy watch? I thought he was known for his expensive collection of Longines. Today, nearly 20 minutes late at the DDay memorial service which started without him. Yesterday, nearly an hour late in Brittany to honour the parachutists.

Kim19

Please can we just have some peace and gratitude today?

Try the DDay thread. It's very interesting and respectful.

Dinahmo

Ladyleftfieldlover

That’s a bit harsh Siope.

No it's not.

Too true it’s not.
Nobody asked to see passports in June1944 did they.
No!!!! They were grateful to us and all the other countries involved who delivered their freedom.

Kim19

Please can we just have some peace and gratitude today?

I think that the OP is working on the lines that the French ought to be grateful to the British for liberating them (singlehandedly of course) and demanding passports is just motivated by spite at the UK having left the evil EU and the French never liked us anyway...

I thought it was an amusing episode and it's a ridiculous thing to be indignant about.

OMG. petra followed the script!

I was just waiting for someone to say that no-one asked to see passports in 1944 🙄

I'm very sure that the UK would want to see the passports of any military person who is visiting here, whether on exercise or not.

My passport was checked both in and out of Afghanistan when I was in the TA. The RAF took us in and out - they did the checking.

I watched some of it on TV, and from French schoolchildren up to pensioners, there was nothing shown but gratitude and respect.

The memorial they have built was lovely.

Let’s not use today as a French/`EU bashing day.😗

I'm sure that the security and risk management arrangements were planned and agreed to beforehand by a French/British team working together.

We don't know any threat assessment levels and best options were in the planning.