This doesn’t affect me at all, so I’m speculating and willing to be wrong. But the way the Guardian described it was that this change was published last October on governmental websites, but never disseminated to the media or people in general, which is why people were caught unawares. If true, it feels an awful bit like
“But Mr Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months.”
“Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn’t exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything.”
“But the plans were on display …”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a torch.”
“Ah, well the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard’.”
It was announced. People are simply crap at paying attention.
Given what happened when Brits were deported months to a year after Brexit, surprised that it would affect them, I’m not really surprised.
‘the new rules, which require British dual nationals to present a passport, new or expired, or certificate of entitlement to airlines before boarding flights to the UK’
