Blue is the colour, passport is the aim, we’re all in it together, winning The Sun’s campaign to ditch those EU passports
Tory MEP Daniel Hannan backs The Sun’s campaign to bring back our original British travel documents
A RISING Tory minister backs the return of the British blue passport, boosting The Sun’s campaign.
Andrew Percy, made Northern Powerhouse minister by Theresa May last month, wants “un-British” red travel documents to be axed.
Last year he said: “Many people would welcome a return to something more traditional.”
The Sun wants the Government to bring back the famous dark blue passport as a sign of regaining our sovereignty from the EU.
It was ditched in 1988 after a long-running battle with Brussels. We were the last of the then-EU nations to switch to burgundy.
The official Government line is that there are “no immediate plans for changes to the format or colour of the UK passport”.
A return to ‘Old Blue’ would be a welcome symbol of the fact we are a proud, independent country
Julian Knight
Admiral Lord West, a former security and counter terrorism minister, said The Sun’s campaign was “a great idea”. He added: “We need one that is clearly British through and through.”
Tory MP Julian Knight said: “A return to ‘Old Blue’ would be a welcome symbol of the fact we are a proud, independent country.”
Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage, whose Brexit campaign included a demand to bring back “Old Blue”, said: “When I saw The Sun’s front page I was thrilled.
“It is a massive issue because the blue passport is a huge piece of symbolism. If we get it right, it will make millions of people happy.”
Here, Tory MEP Daniel Hannan explains why he backs our travel doc fight.
'Symbols matter'
BRINGING back the UK’s dark blue passports wouldn’t, in itself, change very much.
The new passport would still contain the same data and electronic chip. It would still be scanned in the same way. It would still give us visa-free access to the same countries.
But it would symbolise something hugely important. It would show that we were once again citizens of an independent country.
Symbols matter. It was because symbols mattered to Eurocrats that we had to scrap our old passports in the first place.
It was in 1988 that the new burgundy booklets began to be issued.
Jacques Delors headed the European Commission and was determined to turn the EEC, as it was, into something like a single state.
As a sign in the EC building in Brussels put it: “Europe — Your Country.” It was under Delors the EEC became the European Union.
It ceased to be a club of nations and became a united bloc.
Instead of being mainly concerned with trade and economics, it got involved with foreign policy, criminal justice, immigration, culture, employment law, transport, media rules — everything a government does.
The introduction of a common passport was a critical part of that change.
Eurocrats knew that a nation needs its emblems, and promptly set about giving Europe all the outward trappings of statehood.
They gave it a common flag, anthem, a national holiday and driving licence.
But the supreme emblem of nationhood was the passport.
For many, the passport is a shorthand for citizenship. When we talk of someone being “eligible for a British passport”, we mean that they are allowed to become our fellow citizens.
The passport has for that reason always had a certain dignity.
The words that appear in it are so solemn that, in a lesser country, they might sound silly: “Her Britannic Majesty’s Secretary of State Requests and requires in the Name of Her Majesty all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance, and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary.”
The grandeur of those words rubbed off on to the document itself, and the people holding it.
In the days before mass travel, the old blue passport represented the glamour of the jet set.
Then, from the 1960s, passports became widespread, reminding their holders they were citizens of a very special country.
When I was small my mother — and I can’t believe she was the only mum to say this — used to tell me that when we travelled abroad with British passports we were all ambassadors for our country and should behave accordingly.
To repeat, symbols matter. The surrender of the old passport was promptly followed by the creation of citizenship of the EU.
Just as our blue passports had symbolised our membership of an ancient and blessed nation, so their purplish successors symbolised our new status as EU citizens.
Citizenship of the EU was far from symbolic. It gave people legal rights, enforced by Euro judges.
These included the right to live in each other’s countries, to vote, and to get the same entitlements as nationals of that country.
It was that status that Britain rejected in June’s referendum.
We want to work with our European neighbours as friends and allies, not as fellow citizens.
Bringing back the old blue passport will show we have made that change.
While we will want to work with the EU on border security and the like, we’ll be doing so as a sovereign nation.
The new passports will have to be phased in, as the EU ones were in the 1980s and 1990s. People would get a blue passport when their existing document expired.
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I have no doubt that the new documents will be exquisitely produced by De La Rue, a successful British firm that makes passports and banknotes for most of the world.
The inside contents will barely change. Passports have become standardised internationally, allowing them to be read by machines. But, just as in 1988, there will be an outward alteration which represents something much bigger.
The Sun protested loudly — too loudly for some — against Jacques Delors a quarter of a century ago.
It took a generation of campaigning but, on June 23, this newspaper secured its greatest ever victory when the British people voted to leave the EU that Delors had created.
We didn’t vote to leave just to change the colour of our passports.
But changing will remind us, and the world, of what we did vote for — to be, once again, a free people, living under our own laws.
Daniel Hannan is a Tory MEP and author of Why Vote Leave.
Last Brit with blue backs us
By TOM WELLS
THE last owner of the famous old British passport backed The Sun’s calls to bring back the “true blue” last night.
Rachael Dickens, 49, held on to her patriotic navy version until 2004, 16 years after they were scrapped, because of a Post Office blunder when she renewed it.
Osteopath Rachael has lived in France since 2001 but is still a proud Brit. She said: “I loved the old blue passport. It was a real thrill having a blue passport when everyone else was getting those nasty red ones.”
Neil Herron, one of the Metric Martyrs who defied Brussels by trading in pounds and ounces, also backed our bid.
He said: “I fully support The Sun’s campaign. The blue passport is powerfully symbolic.”
Sun readers from all over the country are also behind our campaign.
Jamie Cushnie, 27, a postman in Bristol, said: “Britain voted for Brexit so we should have British passports again.”
Retired Barbara Smith, 69, of Stockwell, South West London, said: “The sooner they bring back the patriotic blue passport, the better. We’ve had enough of this EU nonsense. It will give me pride in my country.”
Student Billie Gregory, 18, of Driffield, East Yorks, said: “A blue passport will give us more individuality and set us apart from the rest.”
Fundraiser Hannah Cope, 25, of Hackney, East London, said: “The blue passport would be a powerful symbol of our independence.”