Irrespective, personally, my doctor retired two years ago and I haven't seen a doc in years anyway. I don't know any lawyers and my kids are in their thirties. So who 'knows' me well enough to vet a photo of me as being me?
Edited: In the past the docs surgery offered a service where I think I recall I paid a fee (this would have been a passport application nearly ten years back) - I dropped off the form and the photos and they then signed a couple of photos and the form from recollection. Is that about right? But how is that validated? Did the doc have to sign onto the passport offices system and quote the passport no as a double blind? If not, surely anyone could have signed the stuff anyway?
It just smacks of cap doffing to me. There isn't even a big house near me where I could go to doff it even if I had a cap. I do have a forelock, though.
I don't now have a passport but my last one was one of the Biometric ones and you could guarantee that the Biometric queue moved slower than the regular type passports queue did.
Because they were actually being checked rather than glanced at by a fallible human being?
NO. Because the e-gates were absolutely useless at reading the passports. They had improved greatly last time I used them, but that seems a long time ago.
I've always found having to have my ID verified by a middle class person offensive. They're just as likely to be crooks as anyone else
The person countersigning no longer has to be a 'professional'. From gov.uk
"Who can sign your form
and photo. Your countersignatory must: have known you (or the adult who
signed the form if the passport is for a child under 16) for at least 2 years. be able to identify you, for example they're a friend, neighbour or colleague (not just someone who knows you professionally)"
Can't work out from that post if you're quoting someone else. But assuming you validated those passports, what steps did you have to go through? Did you just sign the form and photos - was that it?
I like the idea of an ID card it would make us more European.
NO. A nice Union Flag on it, or the flag of the relevant home nation would make it evident that we are English, Welsh, Scottish or Northern Irish.
Those who are against ID cards won't go for that but if they think that they are being European they just might, ID cards are bad but Europe is good confusion confusion!
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There isn't even a big house near me where I could go to doff it even if I had a cap. I do have a forelock, though.
NO. A nice Union Flag on it, or the flag of the relevant home nation would make it evident that we are English, Welsh, Scottish or Northern Irish.
NO. Because the e-gates were absolutely useless at reading the passports. They had improved greatly last time I used them, but that seems a long time ago.
No, put the EU flag on it and re-join the rest of Europe instead of hiding in little England.
'The power of accurate observation .... is commonly called cynicism by those that have not got it.
George Bernard Shaw'