‘Champion’ of UKBA Attacks N2D

Posted on February 28, 2012 by rebelsmoker

We were made aware of a debate going on in a local newspaper here . What soon became apparent was a certain ‘Jack Higgins’ did not like us to the point he started accusing us of many things including being ‘criminally negligent’. He also soon established that he was a ‘champion’ (whether self-imposed is open to question) of the UKBA. He is 100% behind their current tactics and policies. We had our defenders but Mr Higgins took it upon himself to complain to the newspaper and have posts removed that were defending us and our view of the UKBA. Now, Mr Higgins likes to talk in legal terminology and no doubt the newspapers comment team were taken in by this. So, seeing that free speech and debate was being gagged over at the newspaper we decided to invite Mr Higgins over here to put forward his views.

(Note:- the person who had his post removed at the request of Mr Higgins, complained to the newspapers comment team which resulted in a post of Mr Higgins being removed. So much for journalism!)

This was our invite:-

“by SmokingHot Tuesday, February 28 2012, 2:38PM

“Dear Mr J Higgins, it has come to our attention that you have made a number of allegations against ourselves, N2D. You should be made aware that, according to our lawyers, everything we publish is scrutinised by the UKBA Legal Team in London. You’ve also made statements about the UKBA that we totally disagree with. You are therefore invited over to ~~null~~ (my edit.. had to put up another post because it did not accept link) where we shall be doing a post about your views. We have no moderation and, unlike some, believe in free speech and debate. The post should be up by 6pm tonight. We’ll be expecting you. SH”

One of his views was that the UKBA should ban ALL recordings of interviews made by cross-border shoppers. He believes we are violating their rights, leaving them open to abuse and intimidation away from the job, recordings would be useful to terrorists and so on.

What he fails to mention is that if UKBA arrest you over a criminal offence, not only do you get the interview recorded but you get a copy of said interview when it ends.

Please pop over and have a read whilst we await the arrival of Mr Higgins. One point at a time, if you please Mr Higgins so lets start with recording UKBA Civil interviews. We’ll get to the criminally negligent later on, no doubt.

l Love The SS

Posted on February 27, 2012 by rebelsmoker

Why MI5 changed their name from MI5 to the Secret Service is beyond me given it’s connotations but they did. However, l digress … it seems they have vacancies for Mobile Surveillance Operatives and Investigators (Agents)

You even have online ‘tests’

Mobile Surveillance Operatives

If you are interested in applying, try our map reading exercise to see whether or not you have the skills we are looking for. This isn’t a required part of the recruitment process, but we strongly encourage you to try the questions as they will help you to assess some of your skills in relation to the job and prepare you for the telephone interview and assessment centre.

If you are able to answer the majority of the questions correctly then you may be suitable for our Mobile Surveillance Officer role. To learn more, read the guidance on the next page and then try the map reading questions.

https://www.mi5.gov.uk/careers/map-reading-questions.aspx

Easy but was a bit concerned about the answers they give. For compass direction correct answers they gave 2 headings as correct! Mmmmmmmmmmmm

MI5 Intelligence Officer

We have developed a challenge to help you to assess your use of information and analytical skills. The Investigative Challenge has been designed to give you a greater understanding of whether you would enjoy and be well-suited to the MI5 Intelligence Officer role. Although this isn’t a required part of the recruitment process, we strongly encourage you to complete the task as it will help you to assess some of your skills in relation to the job.

The challenge should take you approximately 15 minutes to complete. You will be asked to view a number of written documents and answer some multiple choice questions relating to what you have read. The exercise is designed to broadly reflect some of the situations Intelligence Officers at MI5 are expected to deal with.

Before applying for the Intelligence Officer role, consider how easy or difficult you found completing the challenge.

https://www.mi5.gov.uk/careers/investigative-challenge-quiz.aspx

Couldn’t really be bothered with this so l just read the questions and made a thoughtful guess! Took me about 2 mins and HEY! … I got 6 out of 8 right and told to apply!

Watch out UKBA …. SS here l come!

Shopping for Tobacco in Bulgaria? … You NEED this!

Posted on February 23, 2012 by rebelsmoker

You run the risk of Bulgarian Customs seizing your cigarettes/tobacco at the airport. They invariably scan your luggage and then try to enforce UK guidelines of 1kg of tobacco and 800 cigarettes. Our standard documentation won’t help you. Bulgarian Customs will say they can’t read it and so on. Plus your flight is due and they know this … it all adds to the pressure.Your goods WILL be seized and then there will be nothing you can do about it. You won’t get any documentation and even if you complain when you get home you’ll probably find there is no record whatsoever at Bulgarian Customs of your goods being seized.

Produce this letter and the problem with your goods disappears. Bulgarian Customs Officers do NOT want to upset their boss … it’s a bad career move.

This letter was obtained by ourselves when we refused to let Bulgarian Customs seize them. lt meant us missing the flight and going back home to our apartment in Sofia and then the next day going to the British Embassy. That was a battle and a half in itself. Even talking to them was difficult because the majority of the staff are Bulgarian! We had to teach them the regs and all that went with them first. Then we had to make them get in touch with the Bulgarian Customs bosses. As Brits we wouldn’t have stood a chance but fortunately my wife is Bulgarian and has contacts.

So thanks to her, you don’t have to do any of this …. just use our letter. lt’s written in English AND Bulgarian. Cherish it, it was won with blood, sweat and tears!

lt works and we personally still use it to this day as Bulgarian Customs still try it on!

Nagging SH into doing some Housekeeping

Posted on February 22, 2012 by rebelsmoker

SH, just fu#king do it!!!!!!!!

Us women are good at nagging so expect a few changes around here. SH is going to sort the site out so visitors can get to all the info easily. We’ve had oodles of new visitors since Real Tobacco and F2C started to promote the info cards so it needed doing imho.

The info card downloads are doing great , thanks peeps.. If all the cards so far downloaded are given to shoppers it will mean 2500+ will be much better prepared for UKBA or is that UKBF now? The new head of whatever they’re called is the Chief from Wiltshire Police called Brian Moore. I’d like to know what he’ll think of his new officers and the way they rob shoppers.

SBC’s (xxx) FOI and SH’s tobacco shopping calculator thingy have been downloaded over 1500+ times now each. Lots of the other stuff downloaded too. N2D are now over 250,000+ pageviews. I can’t resist temptation 🙂 this ‘small single issue’ blog is 3,000,000+ higher in rankings than the site that called N2D that! lol Sticking the stiletto in! My ex will always remember me because he’s got a permanent round scar the size of a penny right in the middle of the top of his forehead! 🙂

******************************

Right SH, I don’t like that colour and ……..

🙂 xxxxx

Audio of Shopper v Customs Hull Docks P/O Ferries

Posted on February 21, 2012 by rebelsmoker

It starts after this cross-border shopper comes back from a cigarette break. He’s had the Customs ‘chat’ and search and now it’s on to the big interview. Listen how he says he’ll come back at a later date for the interview. There’s a 2 sec break in the middle where he goes out for another cigarette so this got edited out.

This is the very same Customs officer that arrested our Zaphod back in 2010 but she needed 3 other officers with her. SH put this up on youtube and it’s got about 50,000 views so far. That’s here

Hull Docks P/O Ferries 2011

Download

UK Border Force from Mar 2012 ##UPDATED##

Posted on February 21, 2012 by rebelsmoker

l can’t honestly see what much difference the split of UK Border Force from UKBA will have. The only difference is there is no control from the Chief Executive. According to the UKBA Organisation chart Border force was virtually independent anyway. There is no connection shown with any of the other departments.
UPDATE
We now understand that a senior policeman will be in charge of this lot. We shall be seeking his/her opinion and stance on the current interview tactics and ‘forced’ signing of a ‘confession’. At the same time we’ll take the opportunity to bring up recording the interview.

Latest news from UKBA? ….Zilch! they mention nothing about the changes at all 🙂

…………………………………………………………….

Here’s UKBA organisation chart with Border force removed

So Border force will become UK Border Force :-

So lots of new job positions and titles no doubt, uniforms, badging, stationery blah blah blah ££££££££’s. What happens with the National Post Seizure Unit (where you send Appeals) is unclear as it is still UKBA. Same goes for UKBA Complaints Team.

Here is another chart that shows the current organisation of UKBA in more detail. lt’s not great to navigate round but que sera sera. You can tell it’s government … they’ve got more departments and titles than “soft joe”

BREAKTHROUGH! UKBA beware! We’re fighting back! UPDATEDUPDATED**

Posted on February 19, 2012 by rebelsmoker

UPDATE 1 & 2 (20/02/2012)
Now up on Real Tobacco site … Yay! Thanks Peter.
Now up on F2C … Thanks F2C

Justine xxx
…………………………………………………………………….

Great News! Real Tobacco chain are to inform their customers of their rights and how to protect themselves from unscrupulous tactics used by the UKBA to seize their goods. They’ll be doing this through their newsletters, making this information available in their shops through leaflets and putting the information onto their website with links to ourselves. Peter at Real Tobacco has already given out all the info cards l left him and he had very positive feedback from his customers.

This means we will be getting the message to cross-border shoppers at source BEFORE they come into contact with the UKBA. Many shoppers are not on the internet and simply do not know their rights or means by which to protect themselves. Many shoppers that have never come into contact with the UKBA believe they have nothing to fear if they do come into contact with them … because they are innocent. Unfortunately they find out too late that being innocent is useless against the tactics used by UKBA … and still have their goods seized!

Real Tobacco chain will do all they can to ensure their customers no longer are unprepared for the UKBA. This information should then filter back to the UK coach companies who run the shopping trips. Hopefully they’ll then update their own information and poilicies and we’ll no longer see the guidelines of 800 cigarettes and 1kg of tobacco as LIMITS! Those shoppers that go cross-border shopping independently will hopefully do the same to their friends and associates.

FINALLY we have the info going TO the cross-border shoppers instead of waiting for them to come to us (and usually too late). This really is great news. Now Real Tobacco are doing this we hope others will follow including … perhaps … maybe Ferry companies and Airlines 🙂 You never know, even ‘pro-smoking’ sites might do the same 🙂

And on that note we must congratulate Freedom2Choose on doing exactly that very shortly …. thanks guys!

You can help too when you go cross-border shopping. Print these info cards out and give them to your fellow smokers. Be part of this growing victory.

We said we’d get out there and spread the message … and we have …. and will continue to do so.

Not bad for a ‘single issue little blog’ eh? 🙂

Your time will come

Posted on February 18, 2012 by rebelsmoker

Jealous are we? Did you honestly think your pathetic little scheme would work? Did you really think the boys are that stupid? I bet you were giggling your sad asses off when you came up with it. I bet you thought it was a brilliant plan too. Didn’t work though did it? You sad snotty bastards. I thought the UKBA were bad but you’re fucking worse. Yes, you know who you are. God help you if the boys ever meet you!