As the UK and EU proceed along the course toward their divorce, little things keep cropping up. Oh, there are big things, too—trading rights, immigration, travel—but sometimes it's the little things that heat up the issue.
And here's one. Early on in the process, the British government announced that once the UK is out of Europe, it will resume issuing passports in what had been a traditional blue, rather than the burgundy variants generally used throughout the EU.
It only got to be a big issue a couple of weeks ago when news broke that the government had awarded a contract to manufacture the new blue passports to a French-Dutch company for the equivalent of about $700,000, rather than to the British company (with a French name: De La Rue) that's been making the current passports in Gateshead.
The head of De La Rue complained loudly, and with a tip of the hat to anti-Europe feeling: "The passports are manufactured in Gateshead, we have a very skilled and proud workforce in Gateshead. I'm going to have to look at them in the whites of their eyes and explain why the British Government thinks it's a good idea to buy French passports rather than British passports." He also complained that it was unfair that his company isn't allowed to bid on European passport contracts.
A government spokesperson has indicated that the contract "is not fully complete," and that a change could happen.
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