General Chat

It's 'urban' Rose - bit sad when those who should know better want to 'get down & wiv it' with the 'youff'
Even my 15 year old grand daughter wouldn't use the expression - according to her, it's crass :-D :-D
Mind you, as she said to me, she's like her granny - she has class :-D :-D :-D :-D

Like you, I'm a non-driver. Since my mum died (she lived in Portugal), I've only used my passport for ID too.
Which is why I'm a bit miffed that it runs out in January :-|

Just checked and mine doesn't expire until Nov' 19 so there's still time to go travelling on it :-) Maybe I should start doing some 'win a holiday' comps :-)

Surely it wouldn't be too much bother to offer a choice of colours when issuing passports.

I have been away for Christmas and have only just seen this thread.

OH and I have had blue covers for our passports since the first renewal after they changed to burgundy. We have to take them off for the benefit of the airport police, but otherwise they are blue.

It is all much ado about nothing, empty words by which the government tries to hide just how little substantive progress there has been towards a brextt treaty with the EU.

The government could issue blue passports now if it chose to do so - Croatia has dark blue for instance. The adoption of 27 shades of burgundy was simply a convention by the EU it has no legal force.

Apart from choosing one of about 7 colours the UK input to passport design and content is via an internatioanl treaty organisation dominated by Brussels and Washington. Post brexit UK input will be nil except of course for the colour.

I have recently renewed mine so will not be seeing any change for 10 years. By that time the UK might well have rejoined. In any case I have other options.

The issue of whether the passport will still have "European Community" on it during the transition period has not yet been agreed one way or the other. The EU side are finding it difficult to get an agreement for a brexit deal ( as opposed to over the cliff ) and a tiff over the passport might be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

After brexit WTO rules demand that the passport contract will be open for tender world wide. So the nice new navy blue passport could be printed in, say, Canada or Belgium. Such is the nature of taking back control.

British passports, including consular passports, have always been dark blue with the exception of emergency travel documents which are white. Never black. Consular passports ( I have had two ) are no longer issued.

Hmm..either I'm colour-blind or my two UK passports, the first issued in 1981 are of such a dark blue as to qualify as black.

Comparing them to my Australian passport, which IS black, the colour is remarkably similar

I have old UK passportts from the cardboard era going back to the 70s. Def. dark navy blue not black. I keep one of them 'cos it has a lifetime residence visa for the one of the Gulf states.

You can call it black if you like but it was v dark navy blue. Unlamented by frequent travellers. The current N series Oz passport is officially dark blue not black.

Fortunately there is not the slightest chance of the large format returning. Mrs Thatcher may have had room for one in her handbag but they would not fit in a wallet.

I have more close living relatives in Australia than the UK. I would not move there just to get a blue passport. OTOH why don't the brexiters all move there thus getting what they want without great incovenience to over 30 million people who think they are nuts. They could soon get a nice blue passport albeit no lion or unicorn. Warmer too. Australia being what it is being mlldly deranged would not be much noticed.

when they were in they were in
when they were out they were out
and when they were only halfway in .....

I'll weigh in here and say, like Allan, I have a BLACK passport too - issued by an overseas Embassy in the 1980s - definitely not any shade of blue. I still have it even though it's out of date and I can assure you that it is still BLACK.

Check further Rollo .....

An amusing piece on this subject appears in today's Times.

As a bonus, Ruth Davidson gets a mention in it too. :-S

Rollo,

Just one question to you..

Why do you always bring Brexit into every subject that is posted about on here.?

Brexit has nothing to do with what colour the blasted passport is or will be. even in 2020.

Brexit is all you seem to talk or want to talk about.


Please just don't post on any threads/posts about Brexit when the SUBJECT has nothing to do with Brexit.

You are so boring on threads so presume you lead a very boring life.

:-P :-P :-P :-P :-P :-P :-P :-P :-P :-P :-P :-P :-P

Erm, the opening post specifically mentions leaving the EU.

Kense,
Yes the EU was mentioned but Rollo goes on about Brexit which Linda never mentioned.

He posts about Brexit in every post he does.

Whatever the issue, I still maintain that my old UK passport is black, as is my Oz one,despite Rollo thinking it's blue

I have deleted this posting because Sue in Yorkshire has queried my motive.

'Due' indeed!

Dermot.

What has that got to due with the colour of the passports?

According to the Australian govt the Oz passport is dark blue.
The international passport convention allows only a limited range of colours for passports which does not include black. Thus any govt wanting a black travel document will have to consider that in choosing their own particular shade of blue. Otherwise Oz passports might be green and yellow I guess.

Most of my living relatives hang out in Australia or Yorkshire. Denizens of these places will no doubt be delighted to know that I have no plans at all to join them.
Yorkshire admittedly has plenty of things going for it but getting around and especially getting to London is too much of an ordeal. The Tories did not take long to backtrack on the "Northern Powerhouse" lol.

Biz wise you might as well get the real deal and go to Newcaastle or Edinburgh. Judging by the poor state of the east coast mainline not many takers even for that.

The mutton headed decision to change the color of UK passports back to blue (albeit a different blue) from magenta was very much connected to brexit and hailed as such by the usual crew of nitwits at the Sun, Express, Mail, Telegraph and of course the Yorkshire Post. No doubt the Post would like a white passport for Yorkshire . It also demands that the future blue passport be made in England ignoring WTO rules but that is par for the course.

Of course the post was about brexit. Only now brexit is turning out rather badly instead of the promised new Jerusalem the subject has become "boring". Boring? You ain't seen nuffink yet. One fine day when the cock crows thrice nobody will own up to having voted for ukip and its fellow travellers.

That the parts of the UK which voted remain are best placed to survive and even prosper post brexit while those most keen on cutting loose will also lose the most is a delightful irony. Be careful of what you wish for. Especially blue passports.

Best to keep the £ 72 in the teapot for a rainy day.

You are right about the blue Oz passport, Rollo, as I have one of those. However, I still have my black British passport issued overseas in the 80s. There is no mistaking the difference in colour so I still agree with Allan.

I also have the EU maroon one and .... digging back to the dark ages when I was young and knew everything, I found a straw-coloured card one too.

So, as you'll see, I don't really care what colour I have as long as it gets me from A to B with the ease I've always had. (Houston was the best airport to go into and out of, I've never had such wonderfully friendly treatment - and all on my black passport.)

I didn't see what you wrote, Dermot, sorry.


Edit: Rollo, look at the site britinoz.com which mentions old black passports.

I have two old style consular passports, one issued in Kuwait and the other in Paris. Both are dark navy blue. The only other travel document which the Britsh consul can issue (still) is an emergency travel document wihich is white. Other than that consular passports are no longer issued.

During the late 60s and 70s the UK issued what they called a "British Vistors Passport" for ten shillings which could be used for short term visits to most west european states (not Switzerland) and even some east european ones as part of group tours. These passports were v popular with tour operators. The color was straw. They were withdrawn due to the ease with which they could be copied and misused.

Future passport design features now in the lab include a stored hologram of the person's head and a shift to a much smaller driving licence style document. Not much scope for blue covers then ;-)

"as long as it gets me from A to B with the ease I've always had."

If you expect that post brexit you will only find travel easy to La La land. As Schengen 2 comes into force UK passport holders may well discover that they will need a visa which will not be free. No more scudding off for a cheap weekend on EasyJet.

At present travel arrangements with many countries are dealt with under the EU umbrella. When making new arrangements for the UK Donald Trump is sure to consider the 2 million muslims who call the UK home.