Ker-ching??

I've just realised that my passport is out of date.  So what?  It's extremely unlikely that I will ever go abroad again, so why should I be concerned?  Well. no reason really, except that I checked and the cost to renew it is £72.50.  That's a lot of money to simply replace something I've already got.  I can understand a fee for a first time passport, but renewal is simply a bureaucratic exercise and should cost little or nothing.  And I speak as an ex-Civil Servant well used to the ways in which the simple is made unnecessarily complicated in order to justify charging a fee.  So I shall not be renewing.