I suspect that they will be the 'traditional' dark blue rather than the EU's bright sky blue shade.

Glad they're focussing on important stuff... My taxes are plainly being well spent!

Symbolism is important, and as the passport both needed changing and gets a redesign every year or so anyway it doesn't exactly count as an extravagant extra. Your point is painfully lacking in any kind of substance.

Frankly if you'd told me that this long after the vote the economy would be growing and unemployment would be at a record low I would have called you a crazed optimist. Brexit has been far better thus far than I dared hope.

The point, Oct, is that we didn't need Brexit to change the passport to blue if we really wanted. Croatia is in the EU and issues blue passports. The whole thing is a cynical Tory smokescreen.

A smokescreen for what?

Just think about it for a second instead of getting all political. The passport has to be redesigned regardless, because it has the words European Union on the front and they update the pages on a regular basis anyway. Because, for reasons I've never really understood, the passport colour has been a popular talking point in the press this will inevitably create a headline. That headline is either one about going back to the blue, or keeping the EU red. The Tories have no control over whether there will be a headline or not, merely what's in it, and they happen to prefer the blue ones. There is no smokescreen, there is no story.

"No control over the headlines" except that the whole story (which you admit is a non-story) came about because of a press release and statement issued by Home Office Minister Brandon Lewis, clearly seeking to get a bit of popularity with small-minded S*n readers who think that we needed to leave the EU in order to choose the colour of our passports.

The "smokescreen" is a Tory minister cynically using this for a boost in the press, and pretending that we've "won" something as a result of the Brexit vote.

And the child becomes the master...

"Sun" is a bad word now?

"small-minded S*n readers who think that we needed to leave the EU in order to choose the colour of our passports"

It's exactly that kind of condescending holier than thou attitude that lost us the vote in the first place. Literally no Brexiters voted to leave because of passports. Yes, lots of people will approve, but that's no reason not to do something. Quite the reverse.

@ Croak

Yup. Extremist anti-democratic scum group "stop funding hate" (of a similar ilk to the antifa bastards) have made it their mission to destroy press freedoms, starting with the Sun, Mail and Express. The sad thing is they seem to be winning.

Eh, personally I support this fascist measure. The only Free Press ought to be the State Press so that we can tell the plebs what they ought to think.

It's just a coincidence that that happens to be perfectly in alignment with my well-off middle class elitist leftism.

Didn't they used to be blue? Oh well they are copying the good 'ol US of A.

The British people have had enough of experts.
The British people have had enough of burgundy-coloured passports.
The British people have had enough of facts.
The British people have had enough of rational decision making.
The British people like to make decisions on the basis of narrow prejudice and emotional appeals.
The British people like to get their opinions from honest Nige waving a pint about, and imaginary numbers painted on the sides of buses.

A friend of a friend is starting a petition to keep the historic British burgundy passport which has been part of our heritage for generations. I shall sign it.

Up the Brits! For the Queen, steak-and-kidney pie, and spotted dick! Hurrah!

Jamiet is now a full-fleged subject of the Queen.

Jamie is something of a pioneer. He abandoned rational decision making long before it was popular ;)

I'm reminded of the classic satirical comedy "Yes Minister" & the episode where Jim defends the British Sausage against EU regulations regarding minimum meat content & maximum fat content for sausages.

What is Brad on about again?

@Octavious: Your comments on what is and is not rational are diminished by your previous admission that you think it's ok for politicians to lie to the people, and you don't care too much for the facts.

I'm sure you think the claim we now have £350m a week extra for the NHS is in the "general direction of the truth", don't you?

Unless it has the old hard cover it won't do the job. The old passport was something Johnny Foreigner could admire. It produced instant respect, allowing free and unhindered passage.

@ Jamie

No, that was a lie that contained an element of truth, but the element was designed to mislead. I see you have misunderstood the point I was trying to make. Ah well, no harm done.

Good. Get the EU crap off my passport. I was never asked if I wanted it in the first place. Merry Christmas Brexiteers and losers alike. Verming

the most sought after passport is the United States Passport.

Alright, alright. Let's examine the £350m a week story that remoaners love to trot out, and make a couple of considered corrections to their version of events.

Before getting too deep into it I will note that they don't deny the figure that the bus claimed that we send to the EU, they simply bemoan that the funds will not be heading to the NHS in the aftermath - so we can safely take it as read that the charming remoaners don't deny that we sent (and still send, while negotiations are ongoing) upwards of Eighteen Billion pounds to the EU every year.

Now that that's out of the way, let's get into their preposterous claims:

First, that Nigel Farage promised three hundred and fifty million pounds to the NHS after Brexit. I'm going to have to call BS on that one. It wasn't his bus - it wasn't even a bus connected to his portion of the Leave campaign. If anyone's to blame it ought to be BoJo, but curiously folk don't tend to bring him up much in relation to it.

Second, that the £350m was promised to the NHS at all. Now, I understand that reading comprehension is not the strong suit of many remoaners or they would be more alarmed by some of the edicts that have been coming out of Brussels in the past decade, but fear not! I am here to help you through the grammatical labyrinth laid before you.

"We send the EU £350m a week/let's fund our NHS instead" does not promise the entire sum of the money to the NHS. It does suggest an increase in funding for the NHS once we are freed of our EU commitments, yes, but arch-remainers have been arguing for extensions of our due payments and interim deals and so on - essentially tying up all of the funds that could be reassigned to our ailing public services (Including the NHS!).

It's honestly remarkable to me how dishonestly the lingering remoaners can on the one hand argue that Leavers should be castigated for not dumping billions of pounds a year into a failed health service when *The Remoaners Themselves* argue for keeping that capital tied up in perpetual payments to an entity that has displayed naked histility towards the UK as a whole during the negotiation process.

Curiously, this means that those arguing for a soft Brexit are arguing against funding our NHS. It's a strange position for themto take, but them's the breaks.

Wow. Such a deluded shit for brains

Good to see you have an argument that doesn't rely on petty insults.

Shall we spend an extra £350m a week on the NHS or not Croak?

No. Frankly we already spend too much on it.

so much for the single payer argument. and that is why obama care is a disaster.

@ Jamie

His main points are true. Farage had nothing to do with the bus. It was a suggestion and not a promise.

The figure was clearly a lie and, despite Croak's claims, has been outed as such countless times. The suggestion was clearly misleading, as the idea of our EU contributions being transferred to the NHS was ludicrous. A truth pointing in the general direction of a lie, you might say.

The last paragraph or two is nonsensical ideological babble, and I'm not even sure what ideology it is. Still, we all have a right to an opinion.

Eh, it's not technically incorrect. We do pay ~£20b to the EU every year, but that's not net. Some of it comes from payments to EU institutions not paid by the government and we get a certain amount of rebates and "benefit" from certain amounts of EU spending.

The true net contribution a year is probably closer to £200m a day.

PS: You're probably not able to identify the ideology because it's not actually an ideological commentary, it's an accurate description of what's been happening.