Blue Passport

The idiocy of Brexit is becoming ever clearer; the damage it has done to the UK ever more obvious and unarguable. Maybe the tide is turning but it's a very long road back to some sort of sanity. And, despite the now broadly agreed consensus that Brexit has been an overwhelmingly bad thing, its chief proponents continue to suffer no ill effects, no comeuppance and to show no hint of contrition. Perhaps most depressingly, Farage is currently well ahead of all others in the opinion polls. This despite his racism, despite the incompetence of his party members in local government, despite his admiration for Vladimir Putin, despite the fact that he has done nothing but damage to the country he supposedly cherishes (see any analysis of Brexit).

The most ludicrous and easily mocked argument made by Brexit supporters in 2016 was that we would, at last, have new passports. You know, good old British passports like they used to be: big, bulky - ideal for hitting foreigners over the head with - and, above all blue. Of course, the facts didn't matter (EU countries are free to choose any colour for their passports and, whatever the colour, all passports follow the same standard size and format as defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)).

So it is with some contrition of my own that I realise why today is a painful one. To the bemusement of many, I regard myself as European first, British second. From my POV, my citizenship was taken away from me against my will, followed by a much diminished replacement. Today, my 10 year old passport has reached the end of its useful life and I must send it off in order to receive a new one.

I'll never have one with as many stamps in it as I have today. Since Brexit, UK citizens have a stamp every time we enter or leave the Schengen zone. I have more than 50 such stamps. These will be replaced by the new digital ETIAS system in 2026 and so stamps will no longer be necessary. I gave my fingerprints to a Belgian passport officer last week.

The colour is of no importance. However, the fact that my new passport will not declare what I feel to be my citizenship, the citizneship of which I have been proud, I have to admit, is of great importance. In that respect, I can understand the 'passport argument' beloved of Brexit supporters and mocked by people like me.