Taking back control: UK's classic blue-and-gold passport to return

[rooster59]

Taking back control: UK's classic blue-and-gold passport to return

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday hailed the return of Britain's classic blue passport as a benefit of leaving the EU, pleasing Brexit campaigners for whom it is a symbol of national sovereignty but attracting derision from many remainers.

 

The government said a version of the old passport, issued to Britons from 1920 to 1988, when it was replaced by the burgundy jacket of the European Union, will be reintroduced after the country leaves the bloc in March 2019.

 

"The UK passport is an expression of our independence and sovereignty - symbolising our citizenship of a proud, great nation," May said on Twitter.

 

"That's why we have announced that the iconic blue passport will return after we leave the European Union in 2019."

 

During often bitter campaigning for the June 2016 referendum on whether to leave the EU, which Britain joined in 1973, some Brexit supporters seized on the colour of the passport as a symbol of the country's lost independence.

 

Opponents meanwhile mocked their attachment to something superficial while arguing that Brexit would diminish Britain's real standing in the world.

 

Former United Kingdom Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, a leading supporter of Brexit, responded to Friday's news by tweeting: "Happy Brexmas!"

 

"A return to British passports means we are becoming a proper country again," he wrote. "We are getting our individuality and national identity back."

 

But Anna Soubry, a lawmaker from May's Conservative party who opposes Brexit, tweeted: "Stand by for street parties as blue passports return. Not sure they'll make up for broken #Leave promise of extra £350m a week for (British public health service) NHS."

 

A Brexit campaign slogan suggesting that Britain's financial contributions to the EU could be diverted to the National Health Service has been credited with swinging voters towards "Leave".

 

The new document, which will be issued from October 2019, will come with enhanced security features, immigration minister Brandon Lewis said, and will be introduced as old passports expire and at no extra cost to the taxpayer.

 

Speaking to the BBC, Lewis said even people who voted remain still had an attachment to the dark blue passport.

 

Responses to May's tweet were overwhelmingly negative, however, with many Twitter issuers pointing out that Britain could have kept the old colour under EU rules.

 

Others bemoaned the fact that Britons would lose the right to live and work in 27 other EU countries as a result of Brexit.

 

"Wow this passport's fancy. Must have some kickass features," read one tweet accompanied by a picture of a smiling family collecting their new passports.

 

"How many countries do you have the right to work in on this bad boy?"

 

"One"

 

"Huh. Still, blue though..."

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-12-23

[baansgr]

And project fear jumps in immediately with gina miller saying Brits will have to pay 60 euros to enter European countries, what a liar...rumour has it she will be advertising this on the side of London Bbuses

[edwinchester]

How on earth is a blue passport taking back control?

The burgundy passport was never a requirement in the first place for EU membership and the blue one could have been reinstated any time in the past should they have wanted to.

[faraday]

Why is having a blue passport a 'benefit'?

 

 

 

[sanemax]

2 minutes ago, faraday said:

Why is having a blue passport a 'benefit'?

It shows that we are British and not foreigners

[metisdead]

A British bashing post has been removed. 

[jak2002003]

1 hour ago, edwinchester said:

How on earth is a blue passport taking back control?

The burgundy passport was never a requirement in the first place for EU membership and the blue one could have been reinstated any time in the past should they have wanted to.

Exactly right.

 

How pathetic and sad that they make an issues of getting the old colour passport back.

 

It just goes to show the small mindedness and pettiness of some people, and is almost a joke... makes me embarrassed to be British.

 

These people would not care is the country goes to hell, people starve or are forced out of work and onto the streets... so long as they have a read British blue passport then their life is complete and they can stick a finger up to Europe.

[NanLaew]

The PM is truly clutching at straws if she thinks that reintroducing the old-style passport means anything to anyone any more.

 

Maybe if she came up with a budgetary number to indicate how this petty bout of nostalgia is actually going to cost the UK taxpayer LESS than retaining the burgundy one, there may be a bit more credibility.

 

...but not much.

[sanemax]

1 hour ago, edwinchester said:

How on earth is a blue passport taking back control?

The burgundy passport was never a requirement in the first place for EU membership and the blue one could have been reinstated any time in the past should they have wanted to.

No. All E.U passports had to have the same specifications , size, colour etc

[Enoon]

 

1 hour ago, faraday said:

Why is having a blue passport a 'benefit'?

 

 

 

Because all the best countries have them?:

 

 

 

[alex8912]

14 minutes ago, Enoon said:

 

Because all the best countries have them?:

 

 

 

Well Yemen looks the best and boldest to my eyes. Actually almost black. Very nice.Also your stupid sarcasm is well noted.  If the Brits want to be independent or different why not create a whole new colored ( insert a u for Brits) passport that really stands out in the immigration lines or at the airport lounges. ( If anyone has the tech or time to post a rainbow passport please insert here) 

[edwinchester]

31 minutes ago, sanemax said:

No. All E.U passports had to have the same specifications , size, colour etc

Croatia.....member of the EU.....guess what....it has a blue passport.

[sanemax]

30 minutes ago, jak2002003 said:

Exactly right.

How pathetic and sad that they make an issues of getting the old colour passport back.

It just goes to show the small mindedness and pettiness of some people, and is almost a joke... makes me embarrassed to be British.

 

These people would not care is the country goes to hell, people starve or are forced out of work and onto the streets... so long as they have a read British blue passport then their life is complete and they can stick a finger up to Europe.

Stop being hysterical .

 Of course people would be more concerned about starvation , unemployment and homelessness , rather than the colour of their passport .

    We will proudly, once again be able to travel the World waving our blue books around and they will instantly know that you are British , two World Wars and One World cup .   

    We can slam our blue books down on hotel counters, when booking in and they will realise that they need to speak proper English and they will have to call the best English speaker there to deal with you .

We will no longer get mistaken for French, Belgians or even Polish

[NanLaew]

9 minutes ago, sanemax said:

Stop being hysterical .

 Of course people would be more concerned about starvation , unemployment and homelessness , rather than the colour of their passport .

    We will proudly, once again be able to travel the World waving our blue books around and they will instantly know that you are British , two World Wars and One World cup .   

    We can slam our blue books down on hotel counters, when booking in and they will realise that they need to speak proper English and they will have to call the best English speaker there to deal with you .

We will no longer get mistaken for French, Belgians or even Polish

Yes, there is that upside...

[overherebc]

17 minutes ago, sanemax said:

Stop being hysterical .

 Of course people would be more concerned about starvation , unemployment and homelessness , rather than the colour of their passport .

    We will proudly, once again be able to travel the World waving our blue books around and they will instantly know that you are British , two World Wars and One World cup .   

    We can slam our blue books down on hotel counters, when booking in and they will realise that they need to speak proper English and they will have to call the best English speaker there to deal with you .

We will no longer get mistaken for French, Belgians or even Polish

Gad Sir, it might be rubbish but, by jingo, it's 'BRITISH RUBBISH'

PS.

Can we please have the big blue one with 90 pages for a fiver??

[anon7867763]

Pathetic but it will keep those IQ of 10 Brexiters happy

[edwinchester]

43 minutes ago, overherebc said:

Gad Sir, it might be rubbish but, by jingo, it's 'BRITISH RUBBISH'

PS.

Can we please have the big blue one with 90 pages for a fiver??

You mean the one that was imposed on the UK in 1920 by the League of Nations?

[overherebc]

7 minutes ago, edwinchester said:

You mean the one that was imposed on the UK in 1920 by the League of Nations?

Don't care, just want the 90 pages. ( for a fiver )

???

[sanemax]

7 minutes ago, edwinchester said:

You mean the one that was imposed on the UK in 1920 by the League of Nations?

No, not that one , the one from the British Gov

[sanemax]

11 minutes ago, johnsnapo said:

Pathetic 

What is "pathetic" about having a blue coloured passport, rather than a red one ?

[edwinchester]

5 minutes ago, sanemax said:

What is "pathetic" about having a blue coloured passport, rather than a red one ?

Nothing pathetic about the UK passport being blue at all.

What is pathetic is a Govt that makes out it is being changed because of Brexit when in fact the UK was always free to choose what colour it wanted the sleeve to be.

 

Good background info on the UK passport.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/22/blue-passports-taking-back-control-imposed-league-of-nations-burgundy-passport-eu

[nontabury]

Just renewed my passport in Oct, but never mind I will be very happy to replace it with the British passport in 2019.

 

 A happy Xmas to one and all, that include the remoaners.

 

 

[sanemax]

4 minutes ago, edwinchester said:

Nothing pathetic about the UK passport being blue at all.

What is pathetic is a Govt that makes out it is being changed because of Brexit when in fact the UK was always free to choose what colour it wanted the sleeve to be.

 

Good background info on the UK passport.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/22/blue-passports-taking-back-control-imposed-league-of-nations-burgundy-passport-eu

Although the UK was free to choose the colour of the UK PP, the UK decided to follow E.U recommendations about the size and colour , now the UK are leaving the E.U , it no longer wants to comply with E.U recommendations .

   So, the PP is being changed because of Brexit

[edwinchester]

6 minutes ago, sanemax said:

Although the UK was free to choose the colour of the UK PP, the UK decided to follow E.U recommendations about the size and colour , now the UK are leaving the E.U , it no longer wants to comply with E.U recommendations .

   So, the PP is being changed because of Brexit

Passport specs have been decided by the UN and have been since they took over from the League of Nations.

[sanemax]

9 minutes ago, edwinchester said:

Passport specs have been decided by the UN and have been since they took over from the League of Nations.

Yes, there does need to be certain specifications and uniformity of all the worlds Countries passports , like photo , pages , info etc .

   No one wants to change that aspect

[anon789561]

2 hours ago, sanemax said:

No. All E.U passports had to have the same specifications , size, colour etc

Croatia joined in 2013 so has had pretty much 5 years to change to burgundy but has chosen not to. All others do, but i don't believe they had to.

[sanemax]

4 minutes ago, Happy enough said:

Croatia joined in 2013 so has had pretty much 5 years to change to burgundy but has chosen not to. All others do, but i don't believe they had to.

Croatia didnt want to change to red , because they had just left Yugoslavia , and they had red PPs there and so they wanted to change the red Yugoslavian PPs to independent blue Croatian ones

[smotherb]

2 hours ago, Enoon said:

 

Because all the best countries have them?:

 

 

 

Gee, you wouldn’t want to show your bias or ignorance would you? Since there are only four passport colors, some 50 countries have blue passports. Let me give you a few more countries which have blue passports: Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland; several Caribbean countries; South American Mercosur countries and that is just to name a few.

[Thaidream]

As an American- can I get a blue British Passport in return for my US Passport .  Some Americans so disgusted with Trump have a desire to rejoin the United Kingdom as a Commonwealth member. We would get rid of Trump and put in one of the royals as Governor-General of the American Territories.

 

I was in favor of this until I heard I had to give up American baseball and replace it with Cricket. But  what to with Trump- since he has English heritage- possibly a peerage in the English countryside-  hmmm.  cricket anyone!!!   Cheers!!

 

[sanemax]

5 minutes ago, Thaidream said:

As an American- can I get a blue British Passport in return for my US Passport . 

 

Although you would have to be eligible to receive a UK PP , simple being USA citizen does not give you that right