Who cares what colour their passport is?

I have had my fair share of each of the colour too Penstemmon from just a bit older than you - I was on my mothers before that. The only thing that has caused me to worry about them has been the possibility of loosing them.

How about yellow passports - to match the colour of bendy bananas?

The issue of passport colour is seriously pathetic. Thank goodness most of us haven't lost our sense of irony, a British trait of which I am proud.

Thanks for the link daphnedill - the New Statesman article sums it up nicely - particularly the last point!

From what the Ryanair boss was saying, the open-skies problem is that whatever is agreed, it will be too late - it won't allow enough lead time for arranging holidays and flights immediately after Brexit. Flights are finalised 12 months in advance and holiday arrangements even earlier.

There is a news item about it on the Independent web site, I quote:

"Most flights to and from the UK are governed by the European open-skies agreement, which allows any EU airline to fly anywhere in Europe, and a second treaty governing travel between the EU and the US; 10 years ago, the UK’s bilateral agreement with Washington on transatlantic flights expired when the pan-European agreement was signed.

“It is critical to retain or replace these agreements so that UK airlines can continue to operate established air routes,” warns Abta.

“There is no international fall-back option, such as World Trade Organisation rules, that exists for the aviation sector.”"

I found one of my mother's passports the other day, issued in 1948, the year before I was born. It is wonderful. On the front page - where the name is - it is stamped with "British Subject by Birth, Wife of a British Subject.

There is one child in that section - my brother and then I have been added on pages five and eight, page five showing the cost of 10/- to add me! That seems like an awful lot in 1949. This was stamped for February and I seem to remember we, Mum, my brother and I came home when I was six months old to stay with my grandfather because and mum was finding it difficult to get over my twin brother dying as well as her concerns about me being very small and worryingly getting repeated pneumonia.

The first stamps all have Germany (BZ) which I presume was British Zone as she went backwards and forwards with us. There are a couple of trips to Holland and then on to another with Bundersrepublic Deutchland and Wildearnrath underneath which I was told was Dad's posting after Hamburg but had forgotten until I saw this.

Whatever the colour passports are a potted history

Oh and the picture of mum is just lovely.

This topic may have arisen from a YouGov Poll of around 2000 people which included this question:

Should the Dark Blue Passports be brought back?

31% said YES; 35% said No; and 34% said Don't know.

I wonder if this question was really necessary and if it was, the survey didn't provide the answer. Personally, I am a don't know and don't care.

^ the survey didn't provide the answer.^

On the contrary, I make that a 4% majority in favour of not bringing back blue passports. In which case the 'Noes' have it; the people have spoken and we are all condemned to 'pink' passports whether we like it or not because that's democracy...... or something along those lines

I actually thought this thread arose because someone was seriously proposing spending half a billion quid on resurrecting blue passports post Brexit..

'The Home Office has invited businesses to apply for the £490m redesign project, with the new passports set to come into existence in 2019 – although it stressed this is because the current contract is ending, rather than because of the exit process.'

This quote is from 'The Independent'. Some pro-Brexit MP's have been pressing for the old Blue Passports but this is apparently not the reason for the redesign project.

Like others, no doubt, I would like to know why £490m is needed to redesign a passport but I have not found more than 'The Independent' article.

Personally, I wouldn't be too carried away by the result of a survey of 2.000 people but if people think this is conclusive, that is for them. I would be happy to keep my red passport or change to blue, green or sky-blue pink.

Here's a link if you have a good idea for a new passport and want to win some money:

www.dezeen.com/2017/02/14/dezeen-launches-unofficial-brexit-passport-design-competition-1000-pound-prize/

As I live abroad, my passport is very important - not only to me but to the authorities with whom I register my residence and, of course, when I need to leave to go back home to the UK or anywhere else outside the Schengen area. We are obliged to carry it with us at all times.

I was lucky enough that my second last blue (I thought they were black, actually) passport expired shortly before the new red ones were introduced, so I had the blue/black one for the longest possible time.

However, the soft-back, smaller EU passport is more practical as I like to keep it in my jeans pocket when travelling and not in my handbag, where it could part company with me. (Am I paranoid or just over-careful?)

So, while the black/blue hard cover, gold-embossed passport was very distinguished, a softer, smaller one is fine by me. The new colour will most probably be back to black/blue, which I think is much more official-looking and distinguished than the red, and definitely nicer than green!

JackyB.....I don't like keeping my passport in a bag either......am getting old and daft.....!
One of the reasons I've been converted to a range of 'travel' clothing that my DH has always been a fan of is (and its good for outdoor types - walkers etc as well as washing quickly etc) - is that most of its garments have hidden and zippable pockets that are also great for wallets! Yes, if it was not glued on I'd have lost my head by now!

My mother threw everything out when it had no further use, I would like to have seen her old passports.

It's strange how I always hate my passport photos at first, but after 10 years I look at them and think I looked quite good!

Thankfully, my passport is due for renewal at the beginning of next year so, hopefully I will have an EU one for the next 10 years. I hope to have an Irish passport long before then.

Do you think that will make any difference M0nica? Mine is due for renewal next year as well.

It means I will be a citizen of a country which is a member of the EU, which will make getting to and from our holiday house in France easier. I will present the Irish passport to the French authorities and the British to the British authorities.

But I had already started the process for other reasons explained in my post on p3.

I'm on p2!
A good idea if you want to travel frequently to France.

Doesn't everybody feel that, with all the things that are going on in the world today, nothing could be less important than the colour of our passports?

My daughter has my paternal grandfather's passport It has 2 photos
One of him and one of his wife .
My Grandmother didn't have her own passport she traveled on her husband's!

No Idea how she would have managed if she had to return home by herself

I couldn't care less.