Read on Twitter
A short thread on the changing nature of #Dover passport control. I used to do a lot of tour managing. Mostly, but not always, short breaks to Europe, and often on coaches. When I started, French passport control usually waved us through... 1/
They'd ask if there were any non EU nationals on board, and they would have to have their passport stamped. Everyone else remained on the coach. (The passport officers took it on trust that what you told them was accurate, and you told them the truth... 2/
On return, it used to be pretty much the same thing with UK border control at Calais or Dunkerque. All Brits or EU nationals, and you were waved through. It took a couple of minutes... 3/
As an aside, Eurolines coaches, with independent travellers rather than groups, and a greater mix of nationalities, were usually stopped and pax had to traipse through border control on foot and then rejoin their coach... 4/
Anyway, when Theresa May introduced her "hostile environment" strategy, one of the consequences was, when arriving back in Calais, that all coach passengers had to disembark and go through border control on foot... 5/
The French usually did not require this either outward or inward bound, but it did happen occasionally 6/
The new measures certainly increased the time spent going through border control and did, occasionally, lead to missed ferries. But it was still relatively quick. The only longer delays were if you had non EU nationals on board... 7/
Now, every passenger has to disembark and have their passport checked (no overstaying 90 days, more than 3 months left to run, etc) and then stamped. Let's say an absolute minimum of 90 seconds per passenger. And let's say, in busy periods 6 booths open... 8/
The processing time is now several minutes. A minimum of about 20 from disembarking to reboarding the coach. And that is with nothing going wrong. Add several coaches at one (we're talking about mass tourism, remember) and you are guaranteed delays... 9/
#Dover doesn't have any space in which it can really build new capacity. And the government rejected French offers to slightly mitigate the bottleneck... 10/ ft.com/content/2a6662…
When iris scans and other biometric checks are introduced later this year, or next year, #Dover will not be able to function at all IMO. It will grind to a halt... 11/
Several tour operators have stopped running short, or even longer break European coach trips. They cannot offer holidays where hours will be spent on the M20. Businesses closing, or reducing size, laying off drivers, tour managers, all this loses the Treasury money... 12/
But we "took back control". We've made the UK harder to leave, as well as get into. No matter how hard @VisitBritain try, massive delays and sitting on a motorway for hours are a difficult sell. #Brexit has ruined our reputation, our holidays and many of our businesses... 13/
It's completely unsustainable, if we want to have an inbound tourism industry (For some businesses, it may be too late) theguardian.com/education/2021…
And this consequence of #brexit cannot be "made better" @YvetteCooperMP @DavidLammy @lisanandy. It's the inevitable result of the policy of national self harm that is brexit. It's time for honesty, and it's time for the brexit liars and charlatans to be held to account. Ends
Ps. Typical seasonal trips included Christmas markets in Lille and Bruges. Finished now. Who wants to spend the weekend on the M20?
Pps. This is not middle class whinging. The typical demographic was working/lower middle class Daily Mail readers. Their cheap weekend break has gone now. Did they get what they voted for? I did try to warn them (I had the microphone!)
Ppps #brexit is already costing the UK billions visitbritain.org/2023-tourism-f….
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
