re: #55 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

In another fine example of failing to think things through post-Brexit, the UK is trying to attract (temporary) drivers to ease their delivery problems.

But those drivers will need passports, which many drivers do not have. You see, no passport is needed to travel within the EU since the Schengen accords (each nation has its own mandatory photo ID).

As an EU member the UK remained outside the Schengen Accords zone although permitting free movement of EU nationals. AIUI national ID cards were a permissible alternative to a passport for EU nationals at British border entry points — in the other direction, Britons entering a Schengen zone country had to have passports since we don’t have a national ID card system.

Now we’re not part of the EU the UK Border Force don’t have access to the ID card databases of EU nations that allows them to check the validity of an ID card so it has to be passports for all visitors.

IIRC the current working visa application process for non-UK nationals costs several hundred quid for the applicant plus paperwork costs, there are weeks of delay while it is processed and a possible refusal of the visa application at the end of the day if they get something wrong. There haven’t been any details given by the Government whether the desperately needed HGV visas will be free of charge, expedited etc.