UK Passport Colour

[AB Editor]

 

This poll is closed.

Are you pleased that UK passports will be changing from burgundy to dark blue from October 2019?

• I don't care what colour my passport is - 220 votes
• 56%
• Yes, this is an important change - 135 votes
• 35%
• No, I don't want the colour to change - 35 votes
• 9%

See final stats

Stats until: 17:33 Wed 18th Dec 2024 (Refreshed every 5 minutes)

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[Gromit]

You spoke too early Mikey.

[yogi-bear]

I wouldn't care a jot if my British passport was bright pink with multi-coloured polka dots....as long as it continues to get me through the world's countries, with the minimum of fuss and aggravation.
Colour, therefore, not important imo. :-)

[mikey4444]

Gromit....no I don't think I did !

As it stands at the moment, 70% of us couldn't give a flying firkin what colour it is....a pretty convincing majority don't you agree ?

[ichkeria]

27 Shades of Burgundy by VB White :-)

https://www.croatiaweek.com/croatian-passport-the-blue-sheep-of-the-burgundy-eu-family/

I never knew there were so many different ones. Is it a trick of the light???

[gness]

It doesn't really matter at all....as Yogi says it's to serve a purpose but I do prefer the blue of yours to the burgundy......and I've always had mine inside a green leather cover........x

[Peter Pedant]

irrelevant

com[plete white wash

[Deskdiary]

Couldn't care any less if I tried.

[jno]

there's been some suggestion that Britain used to have black ones. The government has been simultaneously denying and repeating it

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jan/03/black-or-blue-confusion-grows-over-traditional-british-passport-colour

The ones in the top photo look black to me, but there's not a lot of difference from a very dark navy.

As I think I've mentioned before, blue passports were imposed by a foreign organisation, the League of Nations; the burgundy ones were Britain's own choice. Symbolism, eh?

[ichkeria]

The "blue is a passport to freedom" argument has seen more people scurrying away in retreat from it recently than the "Norway" Brexit model :-)

[ichkeria]

I think - having just been studying my old "iconic" blue/black passport that it's like the priest's socks as defined in Father Ted:
very very very very very ..... very dark blue

[New Judge]

Yes it’s quite true that in 1920, the League of Nations organised the Conference on Passports, Customs Formalities and Through Tickets and a common format for passports was adopted. All very sensible. As I said in an answer to another question on this topic, it makes sense to have them the same size and shape and to be machine readable.

The big difference between the League of Nations’ proposals for a common passport design and the current passports issued by EU member nations is that the older passports did not purport to be “League of Nations” passports and did not have the name of that organisation emblazoned on their covers preceding that of the issuing nation. There is no doubt that the Euromaniacs like the idea of the documents being thought of as “EU” passports. There is no such thing because the EU cannot (yet) issue passports in its own right. So to support its ambition or even pretence to be seen as a sovereign state it hijacks the passports of its members. It works too, because time after time (and even within at least one answer to this question) one sees references to “EU Passports”. At least when our passports are redesigned the UK will no longer be party to that ridiculous pretence.

[ichkeria]

Surely the inclusion of EU merely emphasises the freedom of movement and close association between the member states. Not ‘hijacking’ anything.
Of course if you don’t like the idea of free movement and close association then I guess it probably seems like that

[tamborine]

Dont care so long as new ones are free

[naomi24]

I read recently that current passports will remain valid until they expire. Then we'll have to buy new ones, which we would have had to do anyway.

[New Judge]

"Surely the inclusion of EU merely emphasises the freedom of movement..."

It is just as simple (or difficult depending on your viewpoint) for UK passport holders to visit most other EU countries now as it was before the UK joined the Union. The same applies in the other direction. You need a valid passport to be presented at your point of arrival and so do they when arriving in the UK. The difference now is that the UK cannot decline entry to citizens of other EU nations if it wishes. That is one very good reason to quit the EU. As well as that, there is no need to emblazen all individual nations' passports with "European Union" to facilitate that freedom.

As for "...close association between the member states." Please don't start me off at this late hour :-)

[youngmafbog]

I think this question is slightly misleading making it appear that colour is the only thing people are happy about changing.

A better question would have been "Do you think it is an important change to have the words 'EUROPEAN UNION' (originally 'EUROPEAN COMMUNITY' in earlier burgundy ones) remove from the passport.


The answer to the colour for me is I dont really care, the answer to the second is that it is very important.

Interesting to see how some people still think our travel in the EU will change dramatically, clearly a deep misunderstanding of how things work now.

[mikey4444]

YMB....but surely the words about the "EUROPEAN UNION' will have to disappear from our passports, when we have finally left, sometime after March 2019.

Nobody is disputing that, so this whole thread is built on sand.

As you rightly say, the colour of the cover of the passport is neither here nor there.

[vulcan42]

"this whole thread is built on sand. "
Careful mikey look whose thread it is.

[mikey4444]

Vulcan....yes !

But I am criticising some of the daft nonsense that has been expressed about the passport issue, rather than the AB vote itself.

[naomi24]

Mikey, //but surely the words about the "EUROPEAN UNION' will have to disappear from our passports, when we have finally left, sometime after March 2019. //

Apparently not. See my post 22:53 Wed. As I understand it this has already been agreed. You can of course apply for - and pay for - a new passport if you wish, but the old ones will remain valid until they expire.