Passport faux pas

IT is difficult to disagree with a stirring, and evocative,illustration of the White Cliffs of Dover forming a backdrop to the new passport, though it can be argued, legitimately, that York Minster – an equally proud landmark – should also have been included.

By The Newsroom

Published 25th Aug 2010, 23:35 BST

Updated 25th Aug 2010, 23:36 BST

Yet, while it is heartening that the powers-that-be have chosen

pictures from across the UK to help promote the country's flourishing and increasingly important tourism industry, it is a depressing reflection of their blinkered thinking that they have chosen to show Britain's weather at its most drab and dreary.

The Identity and Passport Service says these are "typical" weather scenes; hence the reason for just four of the 28 pages featuring cloudless, sun-riched skies.

Does this passport faux pas matter? Yes it does. For, frankly, the last thing that people want reminding about, as they prepare to return to the UK from sunnier climes, is the likelihood of rain.

They would far prefer to see images that are emblematic of the country, and likely to inspire them, rather than having their spirits drained before they even return to these great shores and try to negotiate passport control.

York Minster