Passport fees to rise?

rapido

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CFC

Renew as soon as possible. You can renew a passport that has not yet expired, and if there are 9 months or less left, those months will be added to your new one.

Rates will go up very fast, the price of a passport has risen exponentially - from less than £30 ten years ago to £42 in October 03, £66 in 2006, now up to the dizzying prices we already pay. It's nearly £100 now if you opt for counter service, this used to be less than half of that cost.

This is of course all to fund the introduction of the National Identity Register. This is a register idea thought up by the government to aid in Transformational Government. Transformational Government sounds good on the surface, but it's not about transforming government, it's actually about government transforming society through use of technology. Hence all the CCTV cameras and the NIR and proposed ID card, plus the use of Automated Number Plate recognition to check where you are travelling from and to. That is why the government is proposing to spend more than 10 billion on it, at a time when the recession is hitting and the NHS and police are underfunded. They see the chance to totally control and shape society instead of serving it as public servants.

Obviously this also links in with the proposal to monitor every single one of our communications between ourselves. The government says it won't be storing the content of your telephone or internet use, as if that makes it all right. It is proposing to record - for life - the details of everyone you call or write to and what websites you visit.
Monitoring your communications is more intrusive than searching your home. It should only ever be done under warrant, with good reason. The general convenience of the Home Office is a very bad reason indeed.

Shortly you will be automatically entered onto the National Identity Register database as soon as you get a passport, so renew early both for freedom and for moneysaving!

rapido

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Rikki

Will it get to the stage where a family can afford to go abroad on holiday but not buy the passports to enable them to go?

CFC

Hi Rapido, it's horribly confusing. I don't have a guide to hand - but it sounds as if it has changed. Last time I renewed I only needed the details of the passport I was surrendering. Just wait till they bring in the id cards and see it all get even worse.

Here is the advice line number - hopefully they may be able to assist, because you can guarantee you are not going to have the numbers of old passports.

0300 222 0000.

Rikki - yes, it may well get to that stage. Not to mention that the new passports wear very easily, and were originally envisaged to last only 5 years due to the new lamination connected with the chip. A couple were recently turned away at an airport because one of their passports was worn and the Servis Air agent would not accept it.

This is really not the country I grew up in. It is extremely worrying.