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Taking Back Control: Post-Brexit blue passports to to be manufactured in France rather than England

hydrophilic attack

hydrophilic attack

Member
Oct 25, 2017
21,500
Sweden
https://www.theguardian.com/politic...passports-set-to-be-made-by-franco-dutch-firm
The post-Brexit blue passport will not be produced by the British firm that makes the current burgundy version, with sources suggesting the contract will be awarded to a Franco-Dutch firm instead.

Changing the colour is regarded by some Brexiters as a powerful symbol of Britain's restored sovereignty.

But the British firm De La Rue has lost out on the contract to make them, its chief executive confirmed on Thursday morning. It is understood that Gemalto, which is listed on the French and Dutch stock exchanges, won the race for the £490m printing job.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday morning, the chief executive of De La Rue, Martin Sutherland, challenged the prime minister or the home secretary to "come to my factory and explain my dedicated workforce why they think this is a sensible decision to offshore the manufacture of a British icon".

He said he would appeal against the decision, and he refused to guarantee that no jobs would be lost at the Gateshead plant the firm uses to produce the burgundy version
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The Home Office said on Wednesday night that no final decision had been made on where the new passports would be printed. A spokeswoman said: "We are running a fair and open competition to ensure that the new contract delivers a high quality and secure product and offers the best value for money for customers.

"We do not require passports to be manufactured in the UK. A proportion of blank passport books are currently manufactured overseas, and there are no security or operational reasons why this would not continue."

Theresa May told the House of Commons in February: "It is right that from autumn 2019 we will issue new blue and gold passports, which have always been the UK's colours of choice for our passports. It is absolutely right that after we leave the European Union we return to deciding the colour of passports that we want, not that the EU wants."
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The Liberal Democrats' Brexit spokesman, Tom Brake, said: "The blue passport saga is turning into a farce. First it was established that we did not have to leave the EU to have blue passports. Now we learn that the passports will be printed by a foreign company. And to add insult to injury, we will pay over the odds for them because the value of the pound has fallen since Brexit and they will have to be imported."

Eloise Todd, of the pro-remain pressure group Best for Britain, said: "The new pro-Brexit blue passports were supposed to be a statement of intent and now we find out they are to be made by the French or the Dutch. The irony is unreal."
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i guess brexit may not turm out to be red white and blue, but at least it will be blue and gold

take back control over my thread making privileges if old
 
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excelsiorlef

excelsiorlef

Bad Praxis
Member
Oct 25, 2017
73,343
iP42wHz.gif
 
excelsiorlef

excelsiorlef

Bad Praxis
Member
Oct 25, 2017
73,343
Brexit is like if the captain of the Titanic was warned at departure of the iceberg and then sailed right into it anyway
 
bremon

bremon

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,944
Lmao I love the irony. I feel awful for the people whose lives will be upended by brexiteers. As for the brexit fans; things are looking "pretty good".
 
danowat

danowat

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,783
Sovereignty, taking back control, will of the people, Brexit means Brexit etc etc.

I've seen the news spun both ways, but the irony of it is pretty funny no matter what camp you fall into.
 
Tygre

Tygre

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,174
Chesire, UK
The Brexiteers fucking love WTO rules, so they should be ecstatic about this decision seeing how it's based on WTO MEAT (most economically advantageous tender) principles.

The French of course make their passports in France, because they make them in-house and so don't have to open the process up to external procurement. Privatisation and outsourcing once again leading to sub-optimal outcomes, who'd have thought it?
 
Kmonk

Kmonk

#TeamThierry
Member
Oct 30, 2017
3,698
US
England, if you're smart, you'll pretend the vote never happened. If any other countries bring it up, just act like you don't know what they're talking about.
 
LegendofJoe

LegendofJoe

Member
Oct 28, 2017
12,099
Arkansas, USA
So a British company with a French name lost out to an actual French company for the contract to print new passports because the UK is leaving the EU.

How much longer is this nonsense going to continue?
 
Red Arremer

Red Arremer

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
12,259
I do so love how Theresa May is spinning this.
Finally, the UK is free of EU shackles, and can make its passports blue!
 
Pyramid Head

Pyramid Head

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,846
Kmonk said:
England, if you're smart, you'll pretend the vote never happened. If any other countries bring it up, just act like you don't know what they're talking about.
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From the start of this mess I've maintained that if we had simply done nothing, most of the slop-for-brains who voted to leave would be none the wiser. The morning of the results they were all paraded across Television screens celebrating this new world they now lived in. They all though that whatever the fuck it was they believed they voted for had already taken place. They might be slightly confused as to why they still see the occasional brown person walking the streets, but fuck them.
 

Deleted member 31104

User requested account closure
Banned
Nov 5, 2017
2,572
It's funny De La Rue is complaining, their entire business is printing banknotes and passports for other countries. The UK only accounts for 21% of their revenue.

GLOBAL BRITAIN!!!
 
NekoFever

NekoFever

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,009
There's now the possible situation where we could leave the EU without a trade deal and end up having to pay import duty on our own passports.
 
Blue Sky Noise

Blue Sky Noise

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
2,563
Sweden
PASHUNATE PASSPORTS FOR ARE BOYS

The blue passport saga is turning into a farce. First it was established that we did not have to leave the EU to have blue passports. Now we learn that the passports will be printed by a foreign company. And to add insult to injury, we will pay over the odds for them because the value of the pound has fallen since Brexit and they will have to be imported
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This should be printed on the first page of every single one of them
 
Uzzy

Uzzy

Gabe’s little helper
Member
Oct 25, 2017
27,401
Hull, UK
The symbol of British independence and sovereignty, printed by the French.

Satire writers must be deep into their drinks by now.
 
Primal Sage

Primal Sage

Virtually Real
Member
Nov 27, 2017
9,850
It's worth noting that a whole generation of UK citizens have never known any other passport colour than the burgundy one. To them the blue and gold version will seem weird and dare I say it... "foreign".

Makes the argument for changing the colour just a bit more stupid.
 
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