I’m sure you will all be a relieved as I am that the BritNat government has announced that, upon the day that the UK leaves the European Union, a proper Blue passport will incrementally replace the fake burgundy one that we have been obliged to tolerate for the last 30 years.
A variety of guests were invited to appear on Radio Four’s Today programme to gush about this momentous event in the history of our “proud island nation”.
All of them were bubbling with excitement. It was as if it were the government’s Christmas gift to its grateful and adoring populace
Nigel Farage tweeted, “Happy Brexmas”, as joy unbounded overtook him despite his impoverished condition.
I think people may be a little disappointed though when they finally get their new passports because, even if you take back control, in today’s world you have to fit in with international standards (on this occasion set in Montréal, Québec, Canada by a UN authority). There’s not much point in having a passport that cannot be read by immigration officials anywhere else in the world.
So it is unlikely that the stiff cover with the cut-out space for a handwritten name will survive. The new proud Tory Blue passport will have to comply with UN requirements, no matter how important and superior Britain thinks itself to be.
In short, it is likely that the new passport will look the same as the old passport, except it will be blue and it will not have “European Union” anywhere on it.
It’s a little sad that so much fuss is being made over the colour.
And, there was nothing to stop the Brits having a blue passport whilst a member of the EU. Croatia seems to manage perfectly well!
The fact that it was an EU passport conferred a few privileges on its holders. You could, for example, when outside the union, make use of any of the diplomatic services of any of the countries of the union. So, if you had a problem in Mauritania, Peru or Cambodia, you could pitch up at the French embassy/consulate, or the Hungarian embassy/consulate, and they would have the same obligation to render assistance as the British embassy/consulate.
Mostly, of course, the red passport used to mean we could move relatively seamlessly though over 30 countries in Europe. Now we will have to queue at borders. If the purpose of the document is to ensure smooth passage between countries, the new passport will certainly be failing there!
I think, though, that the saddest thing I heard this morning was someone say that having a red passport was a mark of shame on the UK.
I’d suggest that people dying of cold on streets, letters arriving telling people they are fit to work on the day that they die, waiting in hospital corridors for 36 hours for treatment, the lowest pension/salary ratio in the developed world, the most expensive transport in Europe, homeless children, schools begging parents for money, well over a million food bank users, the return of rickets…. might be considered rather more of a shame than a piddling passport colour.
Ironies: It’s not clear that the new “iconic” British passport will actually be made in Britain. According to two separate articles in the Daily Diana, they may be made in France or Germany. What horror!
And, no matter where they are produced they will still contain the French wording: “Honi soit qui mal y pense” and “Dieu et mon Droit”.
