Does anyone actually care about blue passports?

[DeepanKrispanEven]

Especially given that we were always perfectly free to opt for blue if people if people were that desperate?

Nope. I suppose this announcement is supposed to make us happier about Brexit. It's a bit desperate isn't it. I don't even remember blue passports...

Absolutely not.

No, I don’t care what colour they are, Eu and it’s good/bad problems are more than the colour of a passport

Could you confirm the source of existence of blue passports in parallel with the current British ones, and his someine would apply for one?

Because AFAIK once the stocks of blue ones were used up (about 2000 for far-flung, consular posts about a decade before that for regular issue) that was it, gone, none produced. So this idea 'you could always have one if you cared' sounds like myth.

And yes, I think the symbol was important to many.

Certainly those who voted for a Common Market, and would be happy to see one continue (with free movement of goods/services and people) - but without the 'bait and switch' of closer political union. The change in passports some 2 decades after that vote being an inadvertent emblem of EU not being what the British people endorsed.

(Brexiter) DS will like blue. He considers Brexit a massive fail in other respects, this could be only part he does approve of.

No, not at all.

Couldn't care less what colour my passport is. I think this move is a sop to the arch brexiteers and the subset of people for whom the measure of brexit being a success will be the colour of their passport. I have never had anything but a Burgundy passport and I'm not exactly young. For a large part of the population this will mean nothing.

I have my dads old blue passport and the new passports will look nothing like that anyway. Modern security measures will require more than a stuck in photo and handwritten personal details.

According to reports the blue passport project will cost £500mil. Another price worth paying.

The new ones look absolutely nothing like the old ones....the grand announcements about this are both ridiculous and embarrassing... and as previously stated the UK was always at liberty not to adopt the burgundy EU version, as per Croatia.

It will appeal to those who voted for the past without an interest in safeguarding the future (or sufficient understanding of the basic issues) and those who are easily duped in general.

It epitomises "the Brexit issue" in visual format. I'll be hiding that with a nice burgundy cover thank you very much.

I expect Nigel Farage cares.

It’s playing the violin as Rome goes up in flames isn’t it? Something nostalgic and “feel good” as we head into the abyss!

Why in the world are we spending this money on such a shitty idea? NHS and education need money; civil services need money and we spend this money to just turn a perfectly fine colour into a new one just because.... FFS.

m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/blue-passports-facts_uk_5a3cc0d6e4b06d1621b36718?utm_hp_ref

In an analysis of constituencies, the Financial Times found: “After education and occupation, the share of people not holding a passport was the next most strongly correlated characteristic with the Leave vote.”

They were blue?? I have all my old ones and would have staked my life on the fact that they were black

I sort of remember my mum's one being black.

The first most correlated characteristic was having a degree (voting remain). Just had a look, was interested

And yes I just saw this on the BBC and was a bit taken aback, I thought the whole blue passports thing was a bit of a joke, I mean it's utterly trivial isn't it? I didn't realise it was an actual think that is so actually important that the govt are going to spend £££ and it warrants a long article on the BBC.

WTF is my response.

lol yes seen those posts I thought they were black as well, now you come to mention it!

I predict blue passports will be the only thing our 'government' will be able to implement within the next 10 years, linked with leaving...............
So really worth all the aggro and fuss

So this idea 'you could always have one if you cared' sounds like myth.

What the OP meant is that the Home Office could have issued dark blue/black passports anyway. Croatia's passports are dark blue/black since they changed the design to include the words "European Union" and translations in the other 23 official EU languages.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_passport
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passports_of_the_European_Union

A great first step

I hope now the government can turn its attention to really pressing matters of sovereignty like bringing back Opal Fruits and Marathon bars

MAKE BRITAIN GREAT AGAIN!!!11!1!

No, they were definitely dark navy blue.

They were very dark navy blue.

The new ones will also be dark navy blue. They will need to conform to the current international standards (for machine readbility) so won't look like the old ones (I had old type until at least late 80s).

It won't cost more to issue than issuing current ones (it'll be same identity database, and cost of printing will be the same whatever the colour of the cover). The periodic redesigns happen anyhow for security reasons, so no real extra expense on that head either.

Expectation is that you renew when passport expires, not Big Bang change over. That should make it pretty straightforward, with no new costs.

I really don't give a shit what colour my passport is. It's not a statement of my patriotism, it's a way of getting on a plane.

I remember reading an article from a brexiter who thought that the 'pink' passports of the EU were humiliating. That was amusing.

I suppose we should be happy they're just reverting to the old style ones and not having a public vote otherwise we'd end up with a Union Jack style 'Passport McPassporty Face' version.

I've still got my first blue passport and look forward to my next one being blue.

Don't get wound up about the money: the existing contract for the design and manufacture of UK passports is coming to an end and a new one is being tendered for. The £490m is for 11.5 years and would have to be paid even if the colour stayed the same.

And yes, Croatia kept its own passport colour but they did so because the EU colour made it look too much like the old Yugoslavian one. I'd be surprised if our EUrophile Civil Service even considered for a moment that the UK should do anything except adopt the EC's (as it was pre-Maastricht) standard format from 1988.

It's a small thing, but symbolic.

It's like caring what colour your driving licence is, isn't it? Maybe we could bring back the green paper thing if people are so nostalgic for old-school documentation.