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Thread: Got your passport for Orkney?

  1. #21
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    I see paranoia is alive and well and living in the north. Who cares if you're asked to provide photo ID? Is it really such an ordeal to be able to prove that you are who you say you are (assuming you can)?

    As Northlink state, this would bring them into line with other transport providers. It could also potentially help with criminals, missing persons and even identity fraud.

    Restricting your freedom? Oh please...

  2. #22
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    Realistically we have to consider older people that don't have a driving license or passport, families with children etc. Tourists or relatives of local people who have been coming here for years will be taken by suprise.

    My main concern though is that these are vehicle ferries - if there is considered to be some sort of threat, how are they going to search every vehicle?

    We have had "home grown" terrorists, many of whom have been to visit Pakistan, so they must have had passports. When you travel by plane, you and all you take with you is scanned.

    Given that nothing equivalent to this can happen, what on earth is the point meant to be?

  3. #23
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    Correct me if I am wrong, but do Islanders get so many rebated fares on ferrys and aircraft?
    If they do, could this not be a way that Northlink are setting up, to stop miss use of this rebate system?
    This is just a theory.
    Once the original Grumpy Owld Man but alas no more

  4. #24

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    Quote Originally Posted by luskentyre View Post
    I see paranoia is alive and well and living in the north. Who cares if you're asked to provide photo ID? Is it really such an ordeal to be able to prove that you are who you say you are (assuming you can)?

    As Northlink state, this would bring them into line with other transport providers. It could also potentially help with criminals, missing persons and even identity fraud.

    Restricting your freedom? Oh please...
    Certainly not paranoia luskentyre. Many people just do not have photo ID, myself included, and the annual trip to the Orkney show will now be a thing of the past, unless you go via John O'Groats. I think it will also affect the tourist trade as lots of folks on holiday take the chance, when they're up here anyway, to nip across but will be turned away when they've no ID. And what about kids? How do you get ID for them without resorting to buying a passport? But, maybe I'm wrong. I just wish the government would hurry up and bring in ID cards once and for all, it would save a lot of hassle for a lot of folk.

  5. #25
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    Buttercup - I think you've made a perfectly valid point about some people not having photo ID. I hope this is well publicised so that people planning travel can at least try to organise a suitable kind of identification.

    The paranoia remark was aimed at those who believe it's a facist plot to restrict our freedom somehow...

  6. #26
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    Ah shucks, so I can't take the kids without photo ID? Och well, another excuse to leave them with GrannyBurd methinks, so MrBurd and I can get a wee weekend away in peace !
    WeeBurd.

  7. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by golach View Post
    http://www.northlinkferries.co.uk/default.aspx.locid-00gnew3b5.Lang-EN.htm


    Go straight to the horses mouth Jabber, and you will get the truth, don't believe every thing you read in hick papers
    Believe me, golach, already read it. You know what I do for a living; I'm here to tell you it's a problem. I saw 4 people today, 2 of whom - in their 30's and 40's,weren't able to produce the ID necessary to travel under Northlink's new rules. Ludicrous. Hey: I'm an incomer, even if I've been here for years and years; passport; photo id, the lot. It's not me it hits. It's the Orcadians who have the problem; them, and the tourists who get to Scrabster and find that Northlink won't take them.

    Luskentyre, you've fallen into the fatal "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" trap. "All that's necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing". Edmund Burke, UK parliamentarian, 1729 -1794.


  8. #28
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    Quote Originally Posted by j4bberw0ck View Post
    Believe me, golach, already read it. You know what I do for a living; I'm here to tell you it's a problem. I saw 4 people today, 2 of whom - in their 30's and 40's,weren't able to produce the ID necessary to travel under Northlink's new rules. It's not me it hits. It's the Orcadians who have the problem; them, and the tourists who get to Scrabster and find that Northlink won't take them.
    Northlink like Easy Jet, are mostly a book on line system as we were when we came up in Oct, and I would presume, they would inform passengers on their booking forms that photographic id is necessary, Easy Jet has done this for years.
    I would assume Northlink would have thought this out before deciding on this policy.
    Once the original Grumpy Owld Man but alas no more

  9. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by golach View Post
    I would assume Northlink would have thought this out before deciding on this policy.
    Golach, me old beauty, you have soooo much more faith than I do........

    I don't think they've thought about it at all!


  10. #30
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    I guess I am so accustomed to having an ID and presenting it frequently that I failed to see this as a big deal when I read it. I can understand children not having an ID but what do adults use for ID for things such as opening a bank account? Is there no type of acceptable ID other than a passport?

  11. #31
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    Quote Originally Posted by golach View Post
    Correct me if I am wrong, but do Islanders get so many rebated fares on ferrys and aircraft?
    If they do, could this not be a way that Northlink are setting up, to stop miss use of this rebate system?
    This is just a theory.
    Nah, it's just Orkney Police trying yet another avenue in their attempts to catch the 'Orkney Graffiti Artist'.
    "It makes my blood burn with metal energy..."

  12. #32
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    I have no passport, either has my child and have no intention of going abroad. My husband does have one though. Why should I have to get a passport for my child to take them to Orkney where we go nearly every year? As long as Andrew Banks doesn't do this we'll be alright.
    Yippee puppies galore soon

  13. #33
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    Quote Originally Posted by j4bberw0ck View Post
    They do anyway. Not one single solitary immigration control officer for miles and miles. Whaligoe Steps, anyone?
    Now you are playing on the ridiculous. A strawman in effect. You are trying to get me to justify why immigration isn't in attendence at Whaligoe steps when all we are discussing is some very low key security measures at Northlink ferries.
    God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
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  14. #34
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    A totally pointless and unnecessary exercise.

    I travel to Northern Ireland most times I come back to the UK, and photo ID has never been requested on either the Seacat nor Stena. True there are Special Branch at the ports who sometimes question you as to where you are going etc - but never been asked for photo ID.
    Last edited by scotsboy; 17-Jan-08 at 13:24.
    'Cause if my eyes don't deceive me,
    There's something going wrong around here

  15. #35
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rheghead View Post
    Now you are playing on the ridiculous. A strawman in effect. You are trying to get me to justify why immigration isn't in attendence at Whaligoe steps when all we are discussing is some very low key security measures at Northlink ferries.
    Rheggers, Rheggers, do please settle down. I'm trying to do no such thing; I simply pointed out that anyone who wants to land in this country from the sea can do so without let or hindrance, since the Government removed Customs and Immigration officers from the North of Scotland. Whaligoe Steps sprang to mind simply as a convenient place locally where some obliging folk long ago even left moorings and a set of steps.

    And the major issue on the Northlink proposals is that many people in Orkney don't have the ID that Northlink themselves say they will require. There are issues of freedom to travel, and why the hell should I produce ID in my own country to travel on a boat with no international link, but my main objection is the stupidity of the proposal.


  16. #36
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    Quote Originally Posted by Margaret M. View Post
    Is there no type of acceptable ID other than a passport?
    Bank accounts are a bit different; they're governed by the Money Laundering Regulations and so there's a short list of acceptable forms of ID to comply.

    Northlink's requirements are laid out on their website, and believe me when I say there are a good number of people here who don't have the necessary ID. I see them all the time in the work I do.

    Being expected to produce ID in work is fair enough; you wouldn't want strangers in your house, either. Being expected to produce photo id to travel on an internal ferry boat service is a bit Soviet Union-esque, don't you think?

    Whatever next? Produce photo-id when you buy petrol for your car because (a) it's flammable and might be a bomb-making materiel, or (b) you might be driving to London to bomb Downing Street?

    Point (b) should ensure a once-over from some Security operation somewhere, anyhoo.....


  17. #37
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    Quote Originally Posted by j4bberw0ck View Post
    Luskentyre, you've fallen into the fatal "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" trap. "All that's necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing". Edmund Burke, UK parliamentarian, 1729 -1794.
    I assure you, I've fallen into no trap. I'm not the one seeing enemies left, right and centre. "Triumph of evil"? I've heard Northlink are a little pricy - but evil?

  18. #38

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    ...I was told today that Scrabster has some sort of control plan that allows all sorts of powers to search / ID folk who arrive and depart ie illegal immigrants ,prevention of terrorism etc in the case of emergency It has this control because it is near Dounreay so maybe Northlink have imposed this in case some bearded Orcadian terrorist wants to come over and steal some of the low level waste that Dounreay does or doesnt have.....either that or some Orkney firm has started making windmills and wants to illegally smuggle it into Caithness....
    A total nonsense ..if we want to go down this road we might as well get the school buses to do the same as often as not there are as many folk on them as Northlink sails with in winter
    Strange how a control freak of a Westminster government seems to spread its tenticles Maybe Jack Straw and his mates have decided to leave the masons and oddfellows alone and decided to target Orcadians !!!!!!
    Beeeeeggg Hughieeeeeeeeeeee
    Last edited by Big hughie; 18-Jan-08 at 00:35.

  19. #39
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    Just another example of our freedoms being eroded and it will get worse.

  20. #40
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    Quote Originally Posted by TBH View Post
    Just another example of our freedoms being eroded and it will get worse.
    Sorry, but that's utter twaddle. Tell me, how is your freedom being eroded by being asked to prove who you are? Are you unable to?

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