Blue Passports Aren’t Iconic, They’re A Distraction

Plans for British passports to be navy blue instead of the current burgundy have been announced by the government, following a campaign by mainly Brexiteers and The Sun, who see blue passports as a ‘symbol of our independence’.

British passports were navy blue until 1988 when they changed to burgundy to match the EU model, which is not obligatory for EU members.

From late 2019 all new passports issued will be navy blue, and will also have new security measures and no European Union branding.

‘One of the most iconic things about being British is having a British passport,’ said Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis, according to The Sun.

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Somehow I think we’re missing the point here.

Being British isn’t about the colour of anything – and if a whole country’s identity is riding on a passport cover, we definitely have bigger issues. Oh, and we already have blue passports in the U.K. they are called Conventional Travel Documents and are issued to refugees.

They are also given to pets.

The headlines as the news broke shows just who is writing, editing, and commissioning the pieces at British publications.

British passports were last blue in 1988, that’s 28 years ago, how can under 30s have a sense of nostalgia for something they have had no interaction with?

Many millennials will see this as a strange thing to get excited about – and a distraction from the British issues we should all be campaigning about; the U.K. housing crisis, the fact that one in 10 girls in the U.K. can’t afford tampons, or the gender pay gap – to name a few.

‘A return to British passports means we are becoming a proper country again’ tweeted UKIP MEP Nigel Farage. ‘We are getting our individuality and national identity back.’

Unfortunately, this feels like another effort to make things ‘how they were back in the good old days’ where there was an appalling lack of diversity and people were even more openly racist and sexist than they are now.

We’re supposed to be moving forward, guys, not going backwards.

It turns out that people who voted to leave the EU are actually more likely to not have passports, according to an in-depth study by the Financial Times.

And the blue passports could be made in Germany, not Britain, as three companies are bidding for the contract, and under EU competition rules, you can’t discriminate against a European film.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with being proud to be British, but there’s more to being British than the colour of your passport.

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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.