In the “maybe it wasn’t the greatest idea after all” department

Are you a fan of Iain Banks? Were you hoping he’d come to the US to tour for his latest SF work THE ALGEBRAIST? Well, your hopes will be dashed because Banks can’t leave the country, as Simon Pia explains for the Scotsman:

IAIN Banks is that rare bird, a writer who not
only talks the talk but walks the walk, especially as he won’t be
flying off from his North Queensferry eyrie anytime soon.

That’s because he has not got a passport. When Britain invaded Eye-raq,
Banksie said he would rip up his passport. Now there is proof positive
that he actually did it.
 

He has told his new American publisher, Night Shade, in San Francisco,
that he won’t be able to go over for a book tour for The Algrebraist as
he can’t leave the country. He explained to the American online
magazine, Salon: “At the moment I don’t have a passport. When the Iraq
war started, I took a pair of very large scissors to my passport and
sent it to the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to express my shame at the
British being involved in this unnecessary, immoral and illegal war. So
I really have to wait until Blair goes.
 

“There’s something very stubborn and pigheaded and stupid about me,
it’s almost like self-harm – it’ll do no real good whatsoever, but it
just makes me feel better, makes me feel like I’ve done something, made
some sort of sacrifice, to protest the war.”

 Look, protesting the war is all well and good, but cutting up your passport and mailing it to the PM? Uh…well I guess Banks is stuck in the UK for the forseeable future, then.