On the 23rd June 2016 my compatriots voted for Britain to leave the European Union. In the subsequent two years, the only thing that has been resolved is that British passport covers will, after October 2019, be blue rather than burgundy. Burgundy (pink! according to right wing newspapers and politicians) is also used by most other European countries. Reverting to blue will be symbolic of the UK regaining its sovereignty, apparently. Pathetically, they could have had blue passports, like Croatia already has, without leaving the EU. Hilariously, the contract to print the new Brexit blue passports has been won by a Franco-Dutch company.
Oh well, with Brexit very little makes sense to me. As you can see from the photo, here in France we already have blue passports, not for humans, but for my dog Jasper and other dogs, cats and ferrets - any domesticated animal capable of contracting and passing on rabies. My burgundy (pink!) UK passport will need to be renewed in March 2022. I don't want to have a passport the same colour as that of a rabid French ferret, or the editors of the Daily Mail and the Sun for that matter, so I have decided to give up my British citizenship. Which means applying for French naturalisation. I've taken and passed the language test already, and today was my self-imposed deadline for submitting my application. I've missed it, but will get there in the next month or two.
But will I ever really prefer the delights of a French dessert wine and some chocolats fins to my birthright, a mug of tea and some digestive biscuits?
As you might expect, I very much identify with this. You didn't mention that the UK has just doubled the cost of renouncing British citizenship - cynical or what! But you can have dual nationality...
It takes a lot for any man to give up his nationality , but it seems to me Brexit is like Trump something which should never have happened. The whole world is changing and at the risk of sounding like the middle aged man I am, I.fear not for the best..On the bright side if you have to become an exile your current abode seems like a pretty good one.
Well, take heart that even though you are essentially being forced to take sides, at least you get France out of the deal. I would love to be able to pass that citizen test and move there myself and say good-bye to America forever....but, alas, that will never happen since I suck at learning foreign languages!
