Another mess at Dover

[Suff]

I'm back thanks, got home yesterday. Tired but in one piece. I'm working off the sleep deprivation now.

Jo that's a real nightmare for the kids although it would only have been what? 2/3 days skiing. Not a long break.

The problem has been there for a long time. What has exacerbated it is the passport stamping after Brexit. Now I travelled through Dover before we had open borders and passports were stamped anyway. But at that time it was at the French end. Everyone got on the ferries then had their passport stamped when they arrived. This is also how Newhaven works and Portsmouth.

The problem is created by the fact that the French customs are in Dover. So adding 50 seconds to each person being checked means they need about 4x the staff at holidays and 2x the staff normally. It can't work and they need to go back to checking the passports at Calais. They'll work it out eventually.