UK Border agency

This from an outfit that doesn't know how many illegals there are in the country, they are having a big laugh.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17896216

I don't know what the fuss is about.
I always use the automatic passport machines and just fly through immigration. (No pun intended)

My point exactly Volty if you can get in easy anyone can.

If you stay in this country you don't have to worry about passports and border agencies. I don't even own a passport. Anyway I thought it was only non EU passport holders who were being held up.

Phil

Phil, it's largely down to the number of passport desks compared to the number of arriving passengers.

At Birmingham only one plane can land at a time, so given the worst case of one international landing every 2 to 3 minutes there could be 200 people trying to get through a bottleneck of 10 desks every 3 minutes. The queues are divided by moveable barriers into EU and Non EU passport holders.
In reality the landings are more spaced out with busy periods seeing mostly domestic flights, so there isn't a lot of queuing for Brits arriving at Birmingham.

Heathrow has parallel runways, so you can double the the number of landings, they accept larger aircraft so you can double the number of passengers for many of the international flights.
I can't remember how many desks there are in immigration but the ratio of foreigners to Brits is much greater than in Birmingham so there is bound to be more queuing.

Airports in general seem to like queuing anyway. There are always more security checkouts closed than there are open in any airport I have used in the last 10 years.
Exiting from baggage collection halls through customs and into the arrivals hall is also a bottleneck point. No more room than a suitcase width at some points.

As you know, in this country when we build something we only make it barely big enough, fast enough, etc, to cope with it's intended purpose. Two years down the line the said construction, be it a motorway or immigration control, is hopelessly inadequate for the task.

As I say, stay in this country and none of these things affect you, what do you want to go and give your hard earned money to a bunch of foreigners for anyway. We give them enough anyway.

Phil

I don't give it to them, it is an exchange of goods and services provided for money.
I probably finance fewer foreigners when I am out of the country than when I am in it, even though I avoid British bars and restaurants abroad like the plague.

Considering the amount of illegals this country appeared to be swamped with story is bloody ridiculous. But for this Scumbag government not entirely unexpected.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17916497

As the banks, Sky and foreign oligarchs seem to be doing the government's job, telling the civil service what to do, then that leaves a lot of government ministers with plenty of time on their hands, so they could be assigned to the barriers - though they are so incompetant that they probably wouldn't be able to do the job, so perhaps it would be best if they were used to sweep the floors and clean the toilets at Heathrow...though on second thoughts that might be a bit too technical for them. I suppose Cameron's head might make a good tool to unblock loos with.

The illegals cost us a few bob.

You are dead right there Fred, Illegal Immigrants cost us all very dearly. This is one area (as is the Police) that the Government cannot afford to be making savings. Lack of attention to these two areas would cost a lot more money in the long run. This country has been a nice safe place for most people for centuries.
Since the days of mass and certainly illegal immigration, Violent crime has escalated, In some foreign countries the carrying of weapons is accepted and expected. I remember as a young person growing up in the fifties and sixties, a murder was front page news for weeks. A murder these days just about makes page five unless it's especially viscious.

Sheldonboy,
If that sort of money was spent on tightening our borders we may have less trouble in our country, and as you say years ago all borders were very tight and also how much money you could take out of the country. i think things were better and safer in those times.

As I said on another forum, half the aircraft chartered to return illegal immigrants to their own countries do so half empty. This is because of last minute reprieves. So we end up wasting £millions more each year. Knowing this why cant the Border Agency overbook flights and then if a few illegals had to wait until the next time, what would it matter?