Passport pandemonium

AS if the chaos at ferry terminals and airports was not enough for holidaymakers to cope with, this was the scene outside the passport office in London yesterday.

Desperate travellers queued outside the office in Victoria as they tried to collect their documents in time for their trips. It has emerged that 550,000 Britons were waiting for new passports at the end of June - with 10 per cent of applications having been stuck in the system for more than ten weeks.