BAHumbug

That isn't what I said though, is it ?

Nobody is going to complain about a 10 minute wait. The point I am making is you can bet your last 10 cents that Mr Green or Mrs May are not going to be made to queue for 2h30 or longer.

BAH

BAHumbug

Nobody is asking for a complete bypass.

The fact you are ignoring is that LHR is the 'face of the UK' to the rest of the world. Perhaps in the name of austerity you think the shambles that passes for passport control is acceptable. It's not even as though these austerity measures are doing much good, but that's a debate for another forum.

Queuing for 2-3 hours to gain entry to your own country of citizenship is wrong. Plain and simple.

Queuing for 2-3 hours for people wanting to visit this country and, presumably, spend their money here is hardly a good welcome. We NEED to attract people to the UK to spend money and invest here - queues like this are hardly the way to go about this.

You might be happy to put up with this in the name of austerity measures, but I think you'll find you're in a very small minority.

BAH

FenLandK

And if we were in the Schengen area we wouldn't need to show our passports at all for intra-Schengen flights. Our politicians can't have it both ways - if we, as a nation, say that we don't trust others to perform adequate border checks we should make a better job of it ourselves and resource it accordingly. It IS all about managing risk - having more ePassport gates must be cost effective in the longer term, if we're not allowed to keep IRIS.

prof

Can someone remind me again why we are losing IRIS, especially at a time like this?

corporate-wage-slave

Actually I agree with you, in the main, that it risks being counter-productive for exactly the reasons you specify; however my argument would be to prioritise the processing of non EEA travellers more. To be honest I don't think many EEA citizens have waited 3 hours at Heathrow - 10 minutes is still the norm (as it is today and it was yesterday for all but a few hours in the evening). My plea was in response to a previous comment that suggested a sense of entitlement - we pay our taxes for a better service than this - which other less well-off citizens simply don't get.

JerseyJ

Had the alleged 2.5hr border queue experience recently on a lunchtime flight back from MAD during the easter hols. Not as bad as people make out. There were plenty of would be Victor Meldrews in the queue clutching copies of the Daily Mail, moaning, grousing and tutting who were quite unaware that one of the reasons why things are gumming up is that their choice of journal has been hysterically crying out for increased security!

Queue was long (almost the full length of the corridor), but we made it through in 35 min thanks to the e-passport stuff working.

Heathrow staff were pleasant although they did seem a little bit scared of some of the aforementioned members of the lengthening queue.

On the e-passport stuff, it is interesting to note that there is a certain amount of wizard of oz stuff going on. The three 'automatic' booths seem to be controlled by a border official looking at a screen just the other side!

BAHumbug

So, in other words, you didn't have the 2.5 hour queue experience ?

In case this hasn't sunk in, people are having to queue for over 2 hours to get through passport control while travelling on a UK or other EU passport. Your queue of 'almost the full length of the corridor' was not long by comparison to the one I encountered and endured on Thursday evening which went down the corridor, around the corner and along a considerable way. This doesn't take into account the people coming from the B&C gates who were being held on a lower floor and only allowed through in small groups to make this aspect of it all manageable. Additionally the e-passport readers were switched off.

Please do not detract from other peoples horrendous experiences by claiming your own relatively short queue is in some way a comparable experience.

BAH

sunrisegirl

And what if you don't have an e-passport? I have Iris, but from what I've been told by those held up in these queues they won't let you out of the queue to use it.

I'm dreading my trips through LHR later this year.

kileysmom

Mind you, I have no political viewpoint here but must say that it was a bit aggravating in Feb. to stand as the first in line for the non-UK etc. border officer watching her have a chat and giggle with another worker who finally walked off and we were once again allowed through. This apparently social conversation was a full 9 minutes long! And I didn't look at my watch until it was clear that it was a social conversation and not a work related conversation.

1010101

Arrivals was almost entirely full this afternoon - thank god for IRIS. Im seriously glad i won't be coming through there during the Olympics as it looks like its going to be a shambles.

T8191

I have seen that … I got through under IRIS, but the OH didn't. She then headed for the e-passport gates. From my viewing position inside the Border, I see an 'official' looking at multiple screens, which seemed to show (a) her passport image and (b) the camera image. Assuming the chip doesn't say anything, then "That's her," and open the gate.

It does, as always, require the said "Technology Operator and Border Control Functionary" to actually be paying attention to the screens instead to chatting to two or three adjacent colleagues [who seemed to be doing nothing productive].

WineList

They will let you through - just make a fuss. Remember that most of those controlling the queue are simply following instructions so you need to catch a supervisor at the point in the corridor when it turns into the hall.

45128

So if those individuals' salaries were to be doubled immediately at least half the problem would be solved, I suppose?

JerseyJ

Point taken, even though the particular queue that I experienced actually started to move quite well (thanks to the aforementioned staff effort). I did not mean to detract from others' experience. My point in the post was to highlight that those who demand full security (or subscribe to journals that daily demand such security) should be realistic about the ramifications. That said the queue was long, it did move, and I found that those of us who took the opportunity to chat with our fellow humans rather than moan found the experience to be somewhat less that horrendous.

stifle

Because of some specious argument that it's a waste of resources, which has gone unchallenged.