Blue passports are the best thing the Government can muster up? You've got to be kidding

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We are returning to the 'iconic' blue passport in 2019 (Getty/iStock)

We have heard from the Brexiteers for many months about the unique advantages we will enjoy after Brexit.

It seems that one of these is the ability to change the colour of our passports from maroon to blue.

Not quite a major achievement.

Jim Hamilton
Carmunnock

We have a crisis in homelessness, a severe shortage of funding for social care and the NHS and businesses are facing considerable uncertainty over our future trading relationship with the EU. Yet apparently changing back to blue passports is a pressing priority for our Government.

I spend a considerable amount of the year travelling abroad for work and care a lot more about the prospect of longer queues at airports in Europe than whether my passport is red, blue or pink with white spots.

The Home Office should be focusing on ensuring it has enough staff to process a surge in applications from EU nationals who are now left with no choice but to apply for permanent residency in the UK.

It says everything about the priorities of this rudderless and populist Government that the colour of our passports is top of the agenda for the Home Office.

Chris Key
Address supplied

We’re going to have blue passports again. Hooray! It’s all been worth it.

Patrick Cosgrove
Bucknell

Blue passports… next we’ll bring in imperial weights and measures, incandescent light bulbs, pre-decimal currency, capital punishment, banning burqas, preventing refugees – a more fearful, meaner UK? Surely not!

Mike Bor
London W2

Why has it taken so long for Damian Green to be fired?

Some Tories (and now even the PM) are demanding an inquiry into the release of information by the police about pornography found on Damian Greens computer. Fair enough.

I think we should also demand an inquiry into why, when pornography was found by the police in 2008, Damian Green was not investigated and disciplined at the time.

I am a public servant and if pornography had been found on my computer in 2008, I would have been dismissed in 2008! It would not have been covered up.

Green’s mates want to blame the police for his downfall. He was the architect of his own downfall by behaviour below the standard expected of a Member of Parliament. I am glad that he has gone.

Jeffrey Silk
Staffordshire

We must stand with the police officers who exposed Damian Green

I was heartened to see the Prime Minster made the decision to sack Damian Green – a man who has lied – after the exposure of his predilection for watching porn on his parliamentary computer, and for allegedly knee-groping a junior colleague. This decision was only right and proper; Green was in a position of trust and power. I do not trust him, and he abused his power.

I was surprised, however, to hear May attack the two officers who brought this to the media’s attention. Former Met Chief Bob Quick and ex-forensic officer Neil Lewis knew of Green’s wrongdoing, and after the Kate Malty allegation both former officers – doubtless knowing the personal attacks that would be made on them – bravely acted as whistleblowers.

Surely they should be praised – not condemned as they have been by the Prime Minister – for putting their heads above the parapet and exposing Green’s malfeasance in public office.

May would do well to look ot her own Government’s advice for “Whistleblowing for employees” before being as outspoken as she was. I quote some excerpts from it –

‘’You’re a whistleblower if you’re a worker and you report certain types of wrongdoing. The wrongdoing you disclose must be in the public interest ... As a whistleblower you’re protected by law – you shouldn’t be treated unfairly ... You’re protected if you’re an employee, such as a police officer.

“You’re protected by law if you report any of the following: A criminal offence (Malfeasance in public office is a criminal offence). You believe someone is covering up wrongdoing.”

I cannot help but feel the needle of May’s moral compass needs to be re-magnetised. Her condemnation of these whistleblowers is hypocrisy to the extreme.

I very much hope your readership will join me in supporting these heroes. These ex-officers acted for the greater good. Had they not spoken up, I am sure there would have been the inevitable stench of a cover-up, and Karen Maltby’s allegation in isolation would have been swiftly dismissed.

Nigel McGoldrick
Surrey