Great Britain will start issuing blue passports again from March 2020 to denote Britain’s exiting of the European Union. This will be the first time for Britain since 1988, when burgundy passports were issued in EU countries.
Priti Patel, Great Britain’s home secretary, said she was happy that the switch had come about. She said, “Leaving the European Union gave us a unique opportunity to restore our national identity and forge a new path in the world. By returning to the iconic blue and gold design, the British passport will once again be entwined with our national identity and I cannot wait to travel on one.”
According to the Home Office, not only will be the new-issue blue passports be ecologically viable they will also be quite advanced in terms of technology. A spokesperson of the Home Office said, “[There were] a raft of new and updated security features, including a hard-wearing, super-strength polycarbonate data page, which contains innovative technologies embedded into the document, to keep personal data secure.”
The government’s readiness to move back to the old times was, however, not reciprocated by everyone, and especially by those who were pro-European in their outlook, vis-à-vis Brexit.
Claire Hanna, Belfast South’s Labour MP who identifies herself as a pro-European Social Democrat, said: “The fact that this is being lauded as a big win sums up Brexit. The colour changes but the opportunity and potential has been restricted. In this case, blue will represent economic harm and limited horizons for the passport holder, and that is a crying shame.”
Edward McMillan-Scott, a 30-year-old longstanding Member of European Parliament (MEP) pointed out that several Europeans would not like the idea of Britons having blue passport. He noted, “It will be seen as a symbol of the attitude prevailing in the Conservative party towards the rest of Europe that is isolationist, ignorant and self-destructive.”