MacSailing.net

With two months to go until UK Chancellor George Osborne announces his sweeping spending review in parliament, now is your chance to let the Government know your views on e-borders.

Voting has opened on the Treasury's Spending Challenge website. Here you can rate the ideas sent in by the public on how the government can cut spending. The RYA's idea for the government to abandon e-borders for boat owners echoes the views of many boat owners who believe that the demands of e-borders will make life difficult when cruising at sea, while not achieving the aim of improving border security.

How to vote
Visit http://spendingchallenge.hm-treasury.gov.uk. Register on the site, search for RYA e-borders, and follow the instructions to give your rating to the idea.

what's an 'e-border'? I've not heard the term before.

Basically, it is legislation that the last UK government put forward that all small boats entering or leaving UK territorial waters must log their crew compliment, passport details, embarkation and destination ports on-line before arriving in port... it's hugely expensive, very impractical and does nothing to enhance national security, but significantly impinges on the freedoms of recreational boaters.

Tom Cunliffe on "Stalinist" e-borders scheme

Typical Big Brother government.. hopefully the new UK government will cancel it as it is (a) hugely expensive and (b) limits the personal freedoms of the average boater...

But... if you're a UK citizen, please visit the link in my original post, and register your disgust!!!

*Before* entering port? How can you do this if you don't have a net connection? And all small boats? Wow that would be a lot of boats. The US isn't nearly as irritating when crossing the border to/from Canada. Still irritating, but not that bad!