Passport to Nowhere
This is a picture of one of my old expired passports. It is, in fact, the first I ever had. It was issued to me in 1986, when I was 23 years old and a PhD student; I needed it to travel to a conference in France. It expired in 1996 (hence the docking of the top right corner) whereupon I had it replaced by a much better made Burgundy one.
I had never travelled abroad before 1986. I’m not from a wealthy family and we never had any holidays outside the UK. Given that, I’m grateful that I ended up in a career that allowed me to travel quite widely, within in the European Union and beyond.
I’m guessing that most of the people celebrating the imminent “return of the blue passport” recently announced by the Government never actually had one of these old-style passports, as they weren’t the colour of the ones UK citizens will have to carry after Brexit which will be Navy Blue, a tone much lighter than the blue of old passport, which is almost black.
This is, to me, just another example of the absurd hankering after an imagined past that never was that characterizes Brexit Britain.
Anyway, the colour of the next UK passport is of no real concern to me. Whatever its design it will not allow UK citizens to live and work freely within the European Union, so it will be of considerable less value than the existing ones.
Fortunately (for me, at least) I won’t be needing a British passport much longer and will have no need to renew mine for the downgraded version that will be mandatory after 2019. In fact when I get my Irish passport the first thing I’ll do is throw the old British one in the bin.
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In the Dark 
January 1, 2018 at 5:29 pm
My understanding is that passports remain valid, until they come up for renewal. I have recently renewed mine, and in 10 years, either this brexit madness will have been reversed, or maybe I will have secured citizenship of an EU country (though I appear not to be entitled to such). Or maybe I will no longer be fit enough to travel.But if they try to tell me my recently renewed burgundy passport will no longer be valid after 2019, there will be trouble.
January 1, 2018 at 5:31 pm
I renewed mine in 2016. My understanding is that it will still be valid as a passport but no longer confer the right of free movement within the European Union.
January 1, 2018 at 7:11 pm
Yes, I understand this. But at least when you turn up at immigration, with the requisite visa, you don’t have the shame of presenting it in a blue one.
January 1, 2018 at 7:20 pm
You could always put a burgundy cover over your blue passport…
January 1, 2018 at 9:22 pm
Sounds like there might be a market in those.
January 2, 2018 at 4:26 pm
Are there any countries for which a `serious criminal record’ is a requirement for immigration?
January 2, 2018 at 2:05 pm
I’ve only ever had a burgundy passport. I never took a family holiday outside of the UK until I was 15 – I guess in 1998 or 1999. My uncle and aunt (perhaps out of pity!) invited me on what turned out to be a rather mad camping tour of about a dozen European countries in a mere three weeks.
I’m ashamed and distressed at how we’re throwing away so much for so little. But I’ve done about all I can about it, so now I’m just trying to get everything as best prepared I can for the coming storm.
I’m envious of your Irish passport, Peter!
January 2, 2018 at 3:17 pm
I haven’t got it yet! I understand there’s quite a backlog…
January 2, 2018 at 4:45 pm
The UK has not left the European Union yet and many people are still campaigning hard to avoid it happening, including by changing the `will of the people’.
January 2, 2018 at 5:03 pm
Bryn: The problem appears (at least to me) that a legal process, not just political one, has now begun. The political hurdles to vault are already looking formidable; the legal ones in revoking Article 50 appear beyond that. I am not optimistic.
January 2, 2018 at 7:58 pm
There is no consensus among legal opinion on whether the invocation of Article 50 can be withdrawn, but many legal authorities believe it can be. Lord Kerr, who had a key role in drafting Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, argues that it can be withdrawn. The language used by senior figures within the European Commission and Council of Europe suggests they would be favourable to accepting a withdrawal.
The biggest issue in my opinion is political in that many politicians feel constrained to accept the (marginal and unclear) result of the June 2016 referendum. My view is that would change dramatically were public opinion to change. The UK Government would become nervous about proceeding with leaving the EU with a hard `Brexit’ if opinion polls consistently showed 60% of the public opposed to leaving. Opinion polls consistently showing 70% of the public opposed to leaving would guarantee a referendum on the final negotiated terms and the death of Brexit.
Anything is possible, provided public opinion changes.
January 2, 2018 at 4:38 pm
“they weren’t the colour of the ones UK citizens will have to carry after Brexit, which will be Navy Blue a tone much lighter than the blue of old passport, which is almost black.”
I thought that the new ones were going to be same blackish colour as your old one, and that the govt pic of the new one had been photoshopped to make it look as blue as they had wrongly promised?
Anyway, we always needed to show a passport to travel to and from France whether we were in UK, EEC or EU at the time. So I refuse to panic, leave for Ireland, Scotland etc.
Anyone who thinks that the UK (or Ireland or France…) as an EU member was or is racism-free is mistaken. There is as good an argument for staying and fighting any negative Brexit consequences, as leaving.
So there!
January 2, 2018 at 4:49 pm
You’re right to say that no country is free of racism but wrong to describe my move to Ireland as panic. I’ve thought about it a lot and planned it carefully. If you read the post you will see there are other reasons than Brexit for my move, not least the attractive salary and the freedom REF, TEF, etc.
January 2, 2018 at 5:06 pm
Well, we have discussed “hype” before – can I then suggest that your post title ” Pasport to Nowhere” may have veered somewhat towards the hyperbolic?
January 2, 2018 at 5:29 pm
No.
January 2, 2018 at 5:29 pm
But EU members even under free movement can ask that migrants have a job before migrating or at least can ask them to prove that they are job-seeking with a good chance of finding employment after migrating. UK never applied this condition because we don’t like identity cards – despite our love of “blue” passports! So even EU free-movement has its (optional) conditions. So I don’t think that practically there may not be so much difference with a possibly similar Brexit version of free movement – hopefully.
Anyway my main point is not to go overboard with Brexit anxiety. There are other social and foreign policy issues that also deserve our attention.
January 2, 2018 at 5:33 pm
Just to correct this. The UK never applied this condition because it couldn’t, owing to the dysfunctionality of the relevant government departments. It doesn’t have anything to do with ID cards.
January 2, 2018 at 6:49 pm
See this http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=459&langId=en