Mr Jack Straw's insistence that there would be no resignations over the passport crisis didn't go down very well with some people queuing at the Passport Office in Petty France, central London, yesterday, Rachel Donnelly writes.
"Well, that's up to him," says Jackie from Billericay, in Essex, who had been queuing outside the office all morning. "We're fed up with all this hassle but I didn't see him down here at 4 o'clock this morning when we joined the queue."
Jackie telephoned the passport office in Peterborough last week to get her passport organised for a trip to France next Tuesday but was told they were so busy she would have to travel to the London office. "I'm fed up speaking to machines. No one is ever there when you're trying to get through to the passport office and they don't respond to letters either," she says. "I handed my forms in this morning and I was told to come back at 3 o'clock, but we're here two hours early because I didn't want to get caught up in the queues all day."
Outside the Petty France office yesterday lunchtime there were about 50 people queuing to get their passports. Earlier in the day the queue snaked around the corner, but suddenly, shortly before midday, the line quickened and most people were walking through the door after waiting on average of two hours.
Once inside, however, there was usually another two-hour wait.
Ms Jenny Quigley (18), a student from London, sent off for an extension to her passport two months ago to the Glasgow passport office, but the passport only arrived in London yesterday.
"The Glasgow office said they sent it in the post but I didn't get it. The post office told me they didn't get it. But it finally turned up today and I've been waiting here to pick it up since this morning. I had to fill out another form and was told to come back to collect the passport at 3 o'clock.
"This situation is so ridiculous. I'm going on a three-month tour of Europe tomorrow and I can't pick up my Inter-rail ticket without my passport.
"No one picks up the phone in the passport office and then when you are put on hold it just rings out."