‘Homeland security’ has always had a somewhat sinister ring, and Obiter listened in awe as Michael Skapinker, keynote speaker at the Law Society’s International Marketplace Conference on 8 July, told delegates of his travails obtaining a visa for the US. Do you have infectious leprosy, he was asked. ‘No,’ he was able truthfully to reply.

Are you visiting the US to engage in prostitution? ‘Certainly not.’ (One wonders if anyone has ever answered that question in the affirmative.) But then came the killer question: have you ever been prosecuted for moral turpitude? ‘What’s that?’ he asked a US immigration lawyer.

Back came the reply: ‘The best book on that subject is 800 pages long.’ Whether copies are freely available at Passport Control is not clear. Best pop a copy in the hand luggage before you jet off to Disney World Florida.

 

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