Blue or Burgundy passports?
It has just been announced by a Home Office Minister that the old blue passports for UK residents could be reintroduced and the current burgundy ones in use since 1998 be scrapped.
The immigration minister, Robert Goodwill confirmed that the Home Office was considering making the potential change after the UK leaves the EU with Brexit.He made the statement in response to a question from MP Julien Knight who has said
” The blue passport is a symbol of our independence as a strong, proud nation”
Five million passports are issued annually and they are going to be redesigned anyway to stop fraud. The process of making them blue again would not cost any extra.
What are your views? Is bringing back blue passports nostalgia gone mad? Or would you you like to see them return? Do you like your burgundy passport or would you rather see something completely different?
What are your views?
We'd love to hear your comments
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BLUE OR BERGUNDY GO ON THEN
BLUE.
Bring back the old ones, but gradually, mine is valid for ten years.
I won't hold my breath.
Theresa May was Home Secretary , Border Agency "lost" 3,600
immigrants they let leave the Airport while checking their visas etc.
The 3,600 have disappeared into the ether. I would prefer the money to be spent on securing our Borders .
I have always travelled a lot and passed through our UK airports many times. It is just not possible to leave a UK airport whilst the Border Agency are checking people's visa and passport.
do Business with runaways. I thought Border Agency, should have been sacked , but they weren't just think how much more competent a returning Soldier from the Middle East would have been . I noted that the illegal young lads in trying to get into Britain via Container
Lorries in Caais were well dressed, with mobile phones , trainers and jackets , no Parents in sight , were trainee ISIS recruits. Not only were U>K. Insurance Companies paying for the Container damage , but also the Contents. The irony is that Britain is to pay for the Wall !!!!
Libya. Now that America has been "breached", the USA will be reluctant to getting involved in the Middle East any more . The UN
is not going to get involved so Putin will be the only one to defend a Country like Syria which is decimated.....what is he going to get out of all this???
America has been castigated for getting involved and been punished by having their own bombing , I think the US of A will
keep out of the Middle East.
Aid convoy to Alleppo was attacked and the cease fire for the enth time has been cancelled.
What is it going to take to bring Law and Order to the Middle East.???
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We have reached the point where some of the old USSR countries such as Romania, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania etc are importing goods and services from the UK and other EU countries and we still have a source of low-cost labour.
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*The classic example is the German economic relationship with Turkey. Following an agreement in 1961 hundreds of thousands of Turkish guest workers or “Gastarbeiter” went to Germany and worked in the factories and on the land. This influx of workers created the so-called German economic miracle.
P.S. I wonder if we will get back the 1 million Euros Cameron and
Osborne "loaned" to the EU Bank a few months ago. Osborne at the time said the loan was "ringfenced"...whatever that means.
I I am also Welsh BTW
Well lets get back to it then, Remainers Lost Leavers won, so to carry on with a discussion of a proposed EU army if we were still members of the EU that is,never would work only the French are any good so what about the rest then, Greece can't afford an army Spain, Germany, Italy, Belgium and the rest, they are all useless and most of them are not trustworthy.
So lets make friends with the Russians then, I like Putin and he needs some friends like we do!
I must say, your's is an interesting position when viewed in the light of Herr Junker's statement to the Bratislava meetings today. He has declared, all EU nations will be federalised within nine months. He goes further.
I won't go into excessive detail, you'll read it all somewhere, but I am concerned about the proposed creation of European battle groups to carry out military intervention in crises. Maybe because of the lack of detail available, one assumes these battle groups are to intervene in Crimea and elsewhere outside the catchment area. But that may not be the case. An earlier attempt at federalising Europe created a military force to suppress opposition from within.
Roof Top, do you recall Mr. Cameron after his 'thin gruel' negotiations with Europe back in March declaring: 'No Ever Closer Union, No European Army.'
And you said, if memory serves well, on the Referendum thread, the Leave campaign were pushing lies!
Come on Roof Top, come back at me!
The European press since our referendum has reported anti EU groups and parties taking great heart. A personal count, taken at the beginning of this week, shows nineteen European nations with a near majority wanting out! For whatever reason they want out, and we led the way.
Paraphrasing, you asked if I think we will be best served by leaving the EU? OH YES I DO! It's the best thing to have happened to this nation since Cromwell addressed the Long Parliament in 1653 (?).
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There are only two military forces of any significance within EU membership, the UK, and France. And the UK has now voted to pull back from cooperation with the other 27 member countries leaving France to take the strain.
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At the very time when military experience and strength is vital for the continuing security of the whole of Europe, the UK has voted to pull back from cooperation with the other countries in Europe.
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There are ongoing threats to Europe from Russia, massive instability in the middle east and Africa and the UK has now voted to not cooperate with our European neighbours.
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Or have I misunderstood the situation.?
The UK ,well possibly we could align with Russia that would make sense for many reasons .
There's one military force in the entirety of Europe which is worth their salt. The British military. They're the very best! The French, as said elsewhere on this thread, are trained only to defend France, and a pitiful job they made of that seventy years ago. And here I might add, also in the early sixties with the Franco-Algerian terrorist war. The OAs made mincemeat of all but the Legion Etrangere.
Co-operate with European military, well we did some years ago. The Belgians downed arms, the French ran and the Dutch went underground. Encouraging, isn't it?
As for the Germans re-arming, well, it is going to be a disaster for the rest of Europe and again we will bail them out! History does repeat itself, it's like an helix.
Now, Roof Top, what about Cameron's lies? Come on, an answer is due us.
the reason the Brits and Americans work so well together as partners in the military is we speak the same language and have similar traditions. It works! A European army would be a shambles in my humble opinion
I entirely agree with you. But perhaps European military integration is further away still. There is a marked lack of commonality across European militaries.
The Czechs and Poles have replaced their Russian-made weapons with American hardware. The French, as far as is possible, manufacture their own warships which are not compatible with anyone else's hardware. With the exception of the Foreign Legion their entire military looks toward protecting France. They're just not trained for anything else.
The Germans re-arming worries me. I'll leave that point there, unless you wish to open a discussion.
The Italians, Belgians and French have a habit of surrendering or deserting. There's more, but none of it points toward a high degree of trust between allied nations.
I doubt the Euro-military would stand much of a chance in open warfare, not the least for the reasons you gave. But as a militia charged with suppressing civil unrest, it could be painfully effective.
I can not understand why we want to be ruled by basically a country that we defeated 60 years ago. We managed very well without Europe interference for many years after the war.,people need to start believeing in themselves. It's a big world out there and we can trade with many other countries and still be a very strong independent country, making our own rules.
When I signed up to Europe, we were coned by the conservative government, of which I've been a member all my life. I'm not sure about my future voting, into a trading arrangement which would benefit our country. I certainly did not join to be dictated to by a bunch of overpaid under worked burocrats, who are only there for one reason only, to make themselves richer. How come they are not accountable, and why have there accounts never been audited. You don't have to be a genious to work that one out.
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A reference to a war that ended more than 70 years ago is helpful when it brings to mind Winston Churchill. Churchill believed that to avoid future conflict in Europe we should cooperate at all levels with our neighboring countries. 70 years later we have voted to ignore that advice.
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It is often said that we can easily replace the level of manufacturing trade we will lose when we leave the EU by trading with the rest of the world, that is not true. Because of our high manufacturing costs, the UK is no a longer a manufacturing country of any significance. The majority of our exports come from the service industries such as banking, finance, tourism, and education and these sectors are very dependent on our EU membership for business. Plus of course, the IT industry where the UK is a world leader. The IT industry is growing very quickly and is not restricted by political borders and tariffs but the downside is that it employs relatively few people.
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I would not like to comment on the work level of EU employees I would guess that they work as hard as our own civil servants. The EU accounts get signed off every year. The year ending September 2015 was published in April 2016. It is worth noting that the error factor in the published accounts primarily reflects the fraudulent claims that are made by the farming industry in all 28 member countries.
Surely, restoring our blue passport with United Kingdom stamped on it is but one step to recovering a sense of our national identity. There will, doubtless, be many more.