LondonLax Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 Just now, ml1dch said: Is it petty of Australian or US customs when they do the exact same thing? If you have a left over sandwich from Heathrow airport in your hand luggage when you get to Australia no one gives a toss. The bio-security laws in Australia are designed to prevent unusual diseases from being brought into an island which might not have seen them before. I wonder what the Dutch will do if the truckie drives his sandwich into the Netherlands via the Calais crossing instead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted January 14, 2021 Author Moderator Share Posted January 14, 2021 7 minutes ago, LondonLax said: f you have a left over sandwich from Heathrow airport in your hand luggage when you get to Australia no one gives a toss. They absolutely do give a toss. There's a massive fine and they are extremely rigourous in enforcing it. I know work colleagues who've been fined for having a banana or other food items in their hand luggage at arrivals (and been given a severe rollocking). 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 1 minute ago, blandy said: They absolutely do give a toss. There's a massive fine and they are extremely rigourous in enforcing it. I know work colleagues who've been fined for having a banana or other food items in their hand luggage at arrivals. I guess I've managed to smuggle mine in on trips home 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted January 14, 2021 Author Moderator Share Posted January 14, 2021 Just now, LondonLax said: I guess I've managed to smuggle mine in on trips home Lucky you. I mean you'll know on the plane as it approaches they tell you not to do it, and you have to fill in a form (at least I do as a UK citizen) giving details of where and who your staying with, why your going and I think that has a box on it to say you've no prohibited items, and then they may (but don't always) check your hand luggage - I've had this at Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne airports. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 1 minute ago, blandy said: Lucky you. I mean you'll know on the plane as it approaches they tell you not to do it, and you have to fill in a form (at least I do as a UK citizen) giving details of where and who your staying with, why your going and I think that has a box on it to say you've no prohibited items, and then they may (but don't always) check your hand luggage - I've had this at Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne airports. I do know they are stricter on checking passengers that have arrived from having spent time in Asia or Africa than they are on passengers travelling from Europe. Anyway it seems likely that this move from the Dutch customs officials is probably more to do with trying to create publicity for the new regulations on food shipments than it is about policing drivers lunches. They filmed the exchange themselves and put the video out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ml1dch Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 17 minutes ago, LondonLax said: I wonder what the Dutch will do if the truckie drives his sandwich into the Netherlands via the Calais crossing instead They probably won't care, given the same rules will have been in place and enforced. So the sandwich will be in a French bin instead of a Dutch bin. These are just the pre-existing rules that we have decided to move ourselves to the other side of. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted January 14, 2021 Author Moderator Share Posted January 14, 2021 1 minute ago, LondonLax said: I do know they are stricter on checking passengers that have arrived from having spent time in Asia or Africa than they are on passengers travelling from Europe. Anyway it seems likely that this move from the Dutch customs officials is probably more to do with trying to create publicity for the new regulations on food shipments than it is about policing drivers lunches. They filmed the exchange themselves and put the video out. Possibly - every time I've gone to Aus, it's been via Doha, or Dubai or Singapore and I think that's another thing on the form, isn't it - "Have you come from any of the following places". As for the Netherlands and their actions, yes it seems petty because the reasons are different from Aus not wanting foreign plant seeds or diseases or etc. brought into the relatively isolated Continent/Island to protect biodiversity and biosecurity, whereas the NL is only doing the checks on traffic from the UK, not their other borders, but the thing with customs and border agents is they are by nature "computer says no" inflexible, rules is rules types (by necessity as much as by nature). It's not unexpected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ml1dch Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 (edited) 16 minutes ago, LondonLax said: Anyway it seems likely that this move from the Dutch customs officials is probably more to do with trying to create publicity for the new regulations on food shipments than it is about policing drivers lunches. They filmed the exchange themselves and put the video out. It's a clip from a news programme from the Dutch national broadcaster Avrotros. If it weren't for Twitter it would never have even been seen in the UK. It's all in Dutch, apart from the officers speaking English to the driver of the car. Not everything is done with UK opinion in mind. Edited January 14, 2021 by ml1dch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NurembergVillan Posted January 14, 2021 Moderator Share Posted January 14, 2021 52 minutes ago, LondonLax said: It is kind of petty to take the drivers lunch sandwiches. It seems the Dutch are the only country interpreting the regulations in this way and I don't really see the benefit in doing it. That's how the rest of world operates, why should we be given special dispensation? When living in Canada, a lad on my team went on a business trip to New Zealand. He'd got an apple in his bag that they'd given to him on the plane and he was fined a couple of hundred dollars for trying to bring it into the country. If someone from a non-EU country tried to bring contraband into the UK pre-Brexit they'd have got the same treatment. You only have to watch shows like Border Patrol to see that. This is all part of it. All part of the benefits of being in the EU that we took for granted and weren't told about until shit got real. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 16 hours ago, ml1dch said: Reckon this is going to be a pretty recurrent theme over the next year. Didn't think it would arrive so quickly though. Sympathy for people who this has screwed over: Quickly turning into trying to remain sympathetic when five years ago they were trying to screw over other people: (since deleted, hence not linking the original) haha brilliant. Hope they go bankrupt soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 1 minute ago, ender4 said: haha brilliant. Hope they go bankrupt soon. To play devils advocate (again!) he states the photo he took of the truck is not his but a 'local fishmongers'. He doesn't actually give his own position on Brexit (though he claims in that thread that he didn't vote in the referendum). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 1 minute ago, LondonLax said: To play devils advocate (again!) he states the photo he took of the truck is not his but a 'local fishmongers'. He doesn't actually give his own position on Brexit (though he claims in that thread that he didn't vote in the referendum). Fair enough, though seeing he tweeted a van showing OUT, i think its pretty obvious what his position was. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bannedfromHandV Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 15 minutes ago, ender4 said: Fair enough, though seeing he tweeted a van showing OUT, i think its pretty obvious what his position was. Yep, and here starts the backtracking and disassociation from what these knobs voted for. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seat68 Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 1 hour ago, LondonLax said: I guess I've managed to smuggle mine in on trips home You might want to watch one of those Border Force shows. They consistently fine people who bring fruit in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 (edited) 13 minutes ago, Seat68 said: You might want to watch one of those Border Force shows. They consistently fine people who bring fruit in. No fruit is definitely a no no because of the danger of fruit fly. I went and had a look at the regulations for Australia and they allow things like bread and dairy for personal consumption but are strict on uncanned meat (including ham salami etc). Edited January 14, 2021 by LondonLax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 12 minutes ago, Seat68 said: You might want to watch one of those Border Force shows. They consistently fine people who bring fruit in. Usually people from Asia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seat68 Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 My favourite was the plane full of people given an apple as part of their inflight meal and then a large number carried it through customs and was hit by a fine. Australia seem very strict with any foodstuffs and not just fruit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 1 minute ago, Seat68 said: My favourite was the plane full of people given an apple as part of their inflight meal and then a large number carried it through customs and was hit by a fine. Australia seem very strict with any foodstuffs and not just fruit. Australia (and NZ) is probably one of the strictest places in the world for bio-security. The agriculture is still somewhat sheltered from some of the insects and pests that can be common in the rest of the world. The question I was raising was whether the EU also needed to be as strict on personal consumption for travel between the EU and UK. So far all the responses I've gotten are along the lines of "Well Australia does it!" but I'm still none the wiser as to why it's actually necessary for travel between the EU and UK (obviously commercial quantities being imported are a different matter). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ml1dch Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 5 minutes ago, LondonLax said: The question I was raising was whether the EU also needed to be as strict on personal consumption for travel between the EU and UK. So far all the responses I've gotten are along the lines of "Well Australia does it!" but I'm still none the wiser as to why it's actually necessary for travel between the EU and UK (obviously commercial quantities being imported are a different matter). Because that is what the law says. And that is therefore their job to enforce it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 Just now, ml1dch said: Because that is what the law says. And that is therefore their job to enforce it. Then I bet you can guess what my next question might be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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