Not going to the UK

Jane (my wife) is unable to travel to Britain for the next few weeks. She could hop on a plane tomorrow to fly to Iceland, or she could take a train to Tallinn, or go to Greece by ship or plane – but Britain is banned, out of bounds. Why? Because she has to renew her British passport, so it has been sent by registered post to the consulate in Madrid (the one in Barcelona no longer does passports), to be returned in a week or two. The result is that she can travel anywhere in Schengenland, where passports are not required, but not to the non-Schengen country of which she is a citizen because she has no passport in her possession.

Renewing the passport will cost an astonishing €185 (£135) – a nice little earner for the British state! This includes a special fee charged by consulates in case the holder becomes a distressed British subject and has to be repatriated at public expense. Distressed British subjects are required to pay the costs of their repatriation anyway before their passport is returned or reissued.

A further point that occasionally arises is that a new British passport will not have the same number as its predecessor. When passports are used to prove identity, this can cause complications. The contract that I have for my telephone service is based on the number of my last-but-one passport. What would happen if I ever had to justify that is anybody's guess.

Spanish passports and ID cards are issued free of charge. They are issued in main police stations (embassies and consulates abroad) and a passport is issued at most two working days after the application is presented.