UK Passport? Third price rise in less than two years

Be it known that the cost of a standard 10-year British passport is to rise for the third time in less than two years. Make that a 70 percent increase in 22 months.

Mister Bijou last bought a passport nine years ago: the UK price was about 18 pounds sterling. Since when. . .

Apparently, new passports now cost 66 pounds. From October 2007, be prepared to pay 72 pounds sterling -- when passport is issued in the UK. (That last detail is important.) At the current rate of exchange, that post-October price is HK$1,112.

Oh, wait. Buying a passport in the UK is cheap. Here are current prices in June 2007 for UK passports issued in Hong Kong:

32 page adult passport (16 and over): HK$1,905
48 page adult jumbo passport: HK$2,305

There's nothing up there yet on the Brit Consul Hong Kong website, but no doubt those Hong Kong numbers will go up in October, too.

Hong Kong passport "fees", source: British Consulate, Hong Kong