LONDON: Britain will return to a blue and gold passport design after the country leaves the EU in 2019 “to restore our national identity,” its interior ministry announced on Friday.
The country will phase out the current burgundy color travel document — used across the EU — following Brexit, when it will no longer be required to conform to the bloc’s rules.
“Leaving the EU gives us a unique opportunity to restore our national identity and forge a new path for ourselves in the world,” immigration minister Brandon Lewis said in a statement.
He added the new passports would be “one of the most secure travel documents in the world” and feature a raft of updated security measures to protect against fraud and forgery.
The current paper-based picture page will be replaced with a new, super-strength plastic polycarbonate material that will be more difficult to alter, according to the ministry.
The new blue and gold design — a return to the colors Britain used for decades following its adoption in 1921 — will be issued from October 2019, when a new contract for passport provision begins.
The existing burgundy passport, in use since 1988, will initially continue to be handed out without references to the EU after Brexit, which is set for March 29, 2019.
Britain’s pro-Brexit tabloid The Sun led a campaign “to scrap the EU’s burgundy model forced on the nation,” demanding a return to the “iconic” dark blue passport.
It hailed the decision as “a stunning campaign victory,” with Lewis penning a column for the right-wing newspaper proclaiming the move.
Euroskeptic lawmakers also celebrated the change.
“A great Christmas present for those who care about our national identity — the fanatical remainers hate it, but the restoration of our own British passport is a powerful symbol that Britain is back!” Andrew Rosindell, a Conservative MP, wrote on Twitter.
Others appeared less enthusiastic.
“People are more concerned with their jobs, their rights and the economy than the color of their passport. Plus, why have blue when you can have red?” opposition Labour lawmaker Danielle Rowley tweeted.
UK passports to change from burgundy to blue after Brexit
UK passports to change from burgundy to blue after Brexit
Arts festival’s decision to exclude Palestinian author spurs boycott
- A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival
SYDENY: A top Australian arts festival has seen the withdrawal of dozens of writers in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, as moves to curb antisemitism spur free speech concerns.
The shooting which killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Dec. 14 sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by Daesh.
The Adelaide Festival board said last Thursday it would disinvite Randa Abdel-Fattah from February’s Writers Week in the state of South Australia because “it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi.”
FASTFACTS
• Abdel-Fattah responded, saying it was ‘a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.’
• Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival.
Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
Among the boycotting authors, Kathy Lette wrote on social media the decision to bar Abdel-Fattah “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message that platforming Australian Palestinians is ‘culturally insensitive.'”
The Adelaide Festival said in a statement on Monday that three board members and the chairperson had resigned. The festival’s executive director, Julian Hobba, said the arts body was “navigating a complex moment.”
a complex and unprecedented moment” after the “significant community response” to the board decision.
In the days after the Bondi Beach attack, Jewish community groups and the Israeli government criticized Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to act on a rise in antisemitic attacks and criticized protest marches against Israel’s war in Gaza held since 2023.
Albanese said last week a Royal Commission will consider the events of the shooting as well as antisemitism and social cohesion in Australia. Albanese said on Monday he would recall parliament next week to pass tougher hate speech laws.
On Monday, New South Wales state premier Chris Minns announced new rules that would allow local councils to cut off power and water to illegally operating prayer halls.
Minns said the new rules were prompted by the difficulty in closing a prayer hall in Sydney linked to a cleric found by a court to have made statements intimidating Jewish Australians.
The mayor of the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield said the rules were ill-considered and councils should not be responsible for determining hate speech.
“Freedom of speech is something that should always be allowed, as long as it is done in a peaceful way,” Mayor Frank Carbone told Reuters.
