how refreshing to see that the irish government has awarded ken bigley a passport! as the holder of an irish passport myself, which is currently in need of renewal, i’m getting quite frustrated by the restrictions on the list of people accepted to endorse your application. in addition to a bank manager [my bank branch is 200 miles away from where i live and the manager wouldn't know me from adam!], a police officer [hmm... yes. i'll just pop into my local nick and ask them to sign my passport form!], a school principal [sorry. i left school 20 years ago - we've kind of lost touch] and of course [being ireland!] a paedophile priest or clergyman [atheists need not apply?] the only other option open to me would seem to be to try and pay some lawyer to endorse my passport photo for me. at least the UK passport authorities allow you to get your photo endorsed by pretty much anyone of a professional standing who knows you.

now i don’t wish ken bigley any harm, but i think this ‘gesture’ by the irish government is a bit farcical, to say the least. i mean what’s meant to happen?… are the people who’re holding him suddenly meant to say “oh sorry! we kidnapped you because you were british, but now you’ve magically turned irish we’ll let you go!”, or what? … and from a purely procedural point of view, how can you issue someone a passport if they haven’t even requested one in the first place, nor filled in an application form, nor supplied an endorsed photo? maybe i should get the missus to lock me in the bathroom and threaten to behead me and then i’d get my passport renewed without having to go through all the tedious formalities as well?!

this bilge was posted on 06 October 2004 at 09:48and is filed under bilge rants. you can follow any responses to this bilge through the RSS 2.0 feed. you can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.