As a follow on, from the original thread about dover, Chaos in Dover

[Hawkins003]

Just that really, a thread for general thoughts and perspectives about the situation

I am baffled at some comments that think Brits should get special treatment at Dover/Calais and French border staff should have more training.
Leaving Brits to queue for 16 hours and then when we point out the issue (ie French border control), you say we are asking for special treatment!

If British officers left French citizens to queue for 16 hours, they would burn the ferries, burn the customs booths down. So a little bit of civilised debate on how we find a solution is not arrogance personified.

They obviously can't cope with the influx. The French are overwhelmed and it needs looking into. This might mean less coaches on the ferry or a booking in system or help from Dover to facilitate the queues or more booth staff.

The process has changed at Dover. The passport now needs to be looked at and stamped, adding in an extra layer of stamping.

Like a pp said, they cope at airports with non-EU with ease, but Dover is a special case because at pinchpoint times there are so many Brits off on their jollies and we are all non-EU. The pressure on the French must be overwhelming.

@HermoineFairfax

Leaving Brits to queue for 16 hours and then when we point out the issue (ie French border control), you say we are asking for special treatment!

I think what's grinding a few gears is the tone that comes across in some posts, which is that this could all be solved ever so easily if the French just saw sense and gave "special treatment" to British passport holders.

There's no sign of that happening, at least short term, so there has to be some way found of making Dover fit for purpose under the rule set that came into play at the end of transition.

On that subject anybody here have the full story on this:

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/the-british-government-rejected-a-33m-proposal-to-double-passport-booths-at-dover-in-2020-330342/

Totally agree - it's absolutely mad there was no money available for the Dover expansion project. Maybe these issues will bring the matter to the forefront, but imo because it's only a couple of times a year, it will be brushed under the carpet.

It's always been a busy port with queues at certain times, but 16 hours is unacceptable.

I don't feel that Brits are asking for special treatment though. Just good service.

The reason why the government won’t take the money from France to upgrade the border controls is simply because they don’t want people to leave the country. They want us all to spend all of our money in the UK. Over time more things will happen, more rules will be put in place that will have the apparently unintended consequence of making it extremely difficult to leave the UK. These won’t actually be unintended consequences but there will, as always, be sufficient wriggle room for Suella and her pals to blame someone else.

And as if by magic, 30p Lee tweets this - the implication being that if you holidayed abroad you don’t love your country. Expect that narrative to develop over time…

But speaking exclusively to The Independent, the Port of Dover CEO said: “Police aux Frontieres turned up with the full complement of resource on the Friday, that our plan had identified that we needed.
“They did that very well. On Saturday, when they knew that we were having challenges, they actually turned up with more people to better support us as well. So they’ve been very flexible.
Having said that, [the new border arrangements are] still a constraint on getting traffic across the short straits.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/dover-coach-delays-latest-brexit-mp-french-b2314927.html

It's a hard border in Dover. Exactly what we asked for.

I thought that must be a parody account, but it’s real!

Only 14% of English rivers meet good ecological status, with pollution from agriculture, sewage, roads and single-use plastics contributing to a dangerous ‘chemical cocktail’ coursing through our waterways. Not a single river in England has received a clean bill of health for chemical contamination.

committees.parliament.uk/committee/62/environmental-audit-committee/news/160246/chemical-cocktail-of-sewage-slurry-and-plastic-polluting-english-rivers-puts-public-health-and-nature-at-risk/

It's a hard border in Dover. Exactly what we asked for.

Yes this is hard Brexit.

The deals we had before, whether in 1975 or 1992, are not what we have agreed now.

We can move back towards having a more integrated relationship with the EU, but we will need a government that is prepared to admit that is necessary.

This ^ exactly this. It was an election promise, then he tried back peddling and then launched project fear.

He should have been forced to stay to see it through.

Cameron the boy who ran away.

Cameron couldn't have stayed. The Tory party was ungovernable by that stage (still are). He could never have been Brexity enough for Gove/JRM/Patel/Raab and most importantly Murdoch.

What if we could bring back Tony Blair ? Would that be better for the country ?