Thursday, September 8, 2011

Why? Britain and European passport controls.

The UK has always insisted on going its own way within the EU. Okay, we get it, and although I can't think of where that might actually have been a good thing (some Brits reading this will surely look at the euro zone crisis and laugh out loud, despite the fact that their mortgage payments are permanently higher to support the value of sterling), I can respect being eccentric if you aren't just making life difficult just to make a point. To wit:

Insisting on passport controls within the EU makes Britain (and yes, I'm looking at you, Ireland) look like a third-world banana republic with a huge chip on its shoulder. Grow up and let freedom reign already. I've just returned from a trip to Cambridge, a trip in which I spent three times more time in passport control than actually flying. There is a reason I won't be accepting many more invitations to the island anytime soon. It's a complete pain in the ass, even coming back into Schengen. And that's a shame. Because I'm going to tell my UK colleagues next time....let's just meet in Paris.


2 comments:

  1. Are you sure it was the passport control and not the anti-bomb controls? Because I flew from Amsterdam to Italy today, and that was plenty annoying too.

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  2. Yes, I am sure. I have, on occasion, waited up to 90 minutes to see the person at the passport control booth on intra-EU flights.

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