Port of Dover Critical Incident

[AndreaC74]

Why are we blaming the french? they didn't vote for Brexit and aren't responsible for increasing/paying for extra capacity at the French border posts on UK soil.

Stamping passports is what happens to 3rd country nationals & that adds time, a lot of it, when dealing with 100s of '000s of passengers, plus having recently been to France, i ve seen UK people arguing with French officials because they don't want their passports stamped!

The UK seems incapable of organising anything at the moment, the numbers travelling across the channel is entirely predictable and delays we are now seeing were talked about pre 2016, i remember seeing the graphs on how long the queues would be for just a few seconds of delay for each passenger.... all Project Fear.

How is this the fault of Brexit?

Is this a serious question?

Stamping the passports now takes an extra minute or so per car. Add that to thousands of cars and you've got a long queue.

Only the rich will be able to afford to go abroad soon. Problem solved.

Of course it’s to do with brexit, the checks will be taking longer because we’re no longer in the EU. So brexit always meant that any issues due to staffing would mean a more serious effect to us. Ok, the French could improve staffing (if sickness, etc allows), they could recruit more, build more booths. But maybe they don’t see why they should. 🤷‍♀️

I think they expected to be treated with the same deference that being members of our great empire still deserve in a sort of; 'Out of my way, foreigner! I'm BRITISH'. At least, that's sort of the vibe I get from several Spanish-residing British migrants I know, along with my very own Brexit-voting, French-holidaying parents who are currently also stuck in a massive queue at Dover and sending me texts slagging off the French.

The daily blame brexit sponsored by the clowns of mumsnet.com.

Yep - the 1% boarding their private jets bound for their cosy tax-havens and asking us proles; 'But why do you even want to leave the UK now? Brexit has made Britain great again'! Disingenuous little shits.

Come on then, give us your list of Brexit wins.....

Thats a good point, stamp dates have to be manually checked to ensure you ve kept to the 90/180 rule.... more delay.

I understand the French only sent over two officers today and only one yesterday
Happy to be corrected though

Outrageous! They should send Jacob Rees Mogg down there to run roughshod over those obstructive Frenchies with his horse and carriage.

Sorry just to clarify- I thought freedom of movement applied to the Schengen area, of which we were not a part.

This level of ignorance about the UKs membership of the EU doesn't reflect well on anyone who was allowed a vote in 2016.

And why should the French magic up extra staff anyway? It's up to them how many staff they want to employ for immigration and border control. If that makes queues on the UK side, well tough luck to us.

I presume the French are grateful for the billions of euros we bring to their economy each year in tourism. How many people will see this kind of thing and think “fuck that, I’ll give France a miss?” Is it not common sense for any country to make it as easy as possible for people to spend money there, especially in the current financial climate?

I didn't vote for it, I don't support it but its not to blame for every single little thing that goes wrong. The French understaffed themselves.

This never happened before brexot then?

I must have imagined sitting in hours of queues before.

Blaming brexit for everything is ridiculous and I actively campaigned for and voted remain.

Ha Ha Typical Brexitier... no solutions, no responsibility, just shits and giggles.

Seriously, there are plenty of things that get blamed on Brexit, e.g. energy costs but this idea Brexit cannot ever be the root cause of problems is stupid.

@Bellatrix13

People don't want their passports stamped because of the 90 day rule which now applies.

"Oh, we spend 6 months of every year at our holiday home in France*"
Not anymore you don't.

(*other EU countries are available).

Grateful? No. Trust me, the French are not at all worried, because the vast majority will continue to go anyway, and the little Englanders who will refuse are not wanted anyway.

I didn't vote for it. I'm not so in love with a trade block I'm still crying 6 years down the line though.

@Carpy88999 With full compliment of booths, they'd still be v long delays, 12 just simply is not enough in peak season.

However, why should or indeed could the French build more booths here in the UK?

Surely thats down to the UK to sort out.

I don't see why. Have EU passport, will travel!

Well it's particularly stupid when there's a direct correlation between the added time of having to have passports stamped and the length of these queues.
And why should the French put on extra staff so that there aren't queues in Dover? They didn't ask us to do any of this. If you want to blame anyone, blame the Brexiters who promised that there would be no downsides, only considerable upsides.

My brother went through this morning. He was queuing from 4am-6am. He said all but one of the French passport control booths were open, they just quickly stamped the passport and handed it back, the queues are not being caused by the French.

It's the beginning of the school holidays! Why the hell OP are you or anyone else surprised or angry about a rather big queue on one of the busiest getaway days of the year 😅

Even if we did supply more would the French staff them correctly? Probably not is my estimation.

I don’t think that was ignorant - in order to arrive in the Schengen area we had to show our passports. Unlike say the French who
could move from France to Germany without any passport check or restrictions in place. What we did have was the right to live and work in the EU based on our British passports. At best we didn’t require a visa to visit the EU, but the last time I visited the EU (in May) a visa was not required. In fact a quick Google informs me that for journeys of less than 90 days in the Schengen area a visa is still not required for a UK passport holder.