Holding a British National (Overseas) passport does not even entitle you to register for the Registered Traveller service for clearing British immigration. For that, you would need the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Passport, which is issued by China. These people's connection to Britain really is rather tenuous.
Anyway, an old drinking companion has emailed me. Like me, he has so middle-class a Northern accent that he can turn it off almost completely when the need arises. Like me, he is light-skinned mixed-race with a WASP name.
And like me, he is nevertheless both Red Wall enough and Black Wall enough to be frightened half to death at the prospect of a Starmer Government, never mind a Starmer Government that was backed by a Biden Administration.
And like me, he is nevertheless both Red Wall enough and Black Wall enough to be frightened half to death at the prospect of a Starmer Government, never mind a Starmer Government that was backed by a Biden Administration.
Short of that Government, Russia is unlikely to declare that all British citizens were Russian citizens unless they specifically renounced that status by filling in a form in an obscure Russian minority language, sent it by post to an office in a remote Russian village thousands of miles from where that language was spoken, and enclosed a cheque for one hundred billion pounds, but payable in roubles.
Boris Johnson may rally his own base by invoking the name of Jeremy Corbyn, but just as his economic policies are far closer to Corbyn's than to Starmer's, and were so before anyone had heard of Covid-19, so also is his dovish approach to Russia.
Boris Johnson may rally his own base by invoking the name of Jeremy Corbyn, but just as his economic policies are far closer to Corbyn's than to Starmer's, and were so before anyone had heard of Covid-19, so also is his dovish approach to Russia.
China, however, having lost face due to Britain's attempted annexation of anything up to three million of its people, might declare that all British citizens were Chinese citizens unless they specifically renounced that status by filling in a form in an obscure Chinese minority language, sent it by post to an office in a remote Chinese village thousands of miles from where that language was spoken, and enclosed a cheque for one hundred billion pounds, but payable in renminbi.
And what if both of these things did in fact happen? After all, if anyone were to propose it, then the EU would certainly adopt a treaty amendment declaring all British citizens to be EU citizens unless they specifically renounced that status by filling in a form in an obscure European minority language, sent it by post to an office in a remote European village thousands of miles from where that language was spoken, and enclosed a cheque for one hundred billion pounds, but payable in euros.
There is currently no such thing as EU citizenship apart from that of a member state. But there could be. In theory, all British citizens would be EU citizens. But we all know who would make an issue of it, and of whom an issue would be made by the EU.
The Red Wall might welcome the generally unmentioned, but ever-present, insurance policy of Russian citizenship, and the Black Wall might welcome the generally unmentioned, but ever-present, insurance policy of Chinese citizenship, the dreams of 1917 and 1949, not to say the shared victory of 1945, having never quite died.
One of the institutions that would be most transformed by this would be the Conservative Party. Half of the Red Wall turned Blue in 2019, as most of the other half will in 2024. The Conservative Party became electorally dependent on constituencies that had voted for Corbyn in 2017, and which would have done so again if he had stuck to his Bennite guns on Brexit. Next time, it will acquire many seats that had voted for Corbyn both times.
And what if both of these things did in fact happen? After all, if anyone were to propose it, then the EU would certainly adopt a treaty amendment declaring all British citizens to be EU citizens unless they specifically renounced that status by filling in a form in an obscure European minority language, sent it by post to an office in a remote European village thousands of miles from where that language was spoken, and enclosed a cheque for one hundred billion pounds, but payable in euros.
There is currently no such thing as EU citizenship apart from that of a member state. But there could be. In theory, all British citizens would be EU citizens. But we all know who would make an issue of it, and of whom an issue would be made by the EU.
The Red Wall might welcome the generally unmentioned, but ever-present, insurance policy of Russian citizenship, and the Black Wall might welcome the generally unmentioned, but ever-present, insurance policy of Chinese citizenship, the dreams of 1917 and 1949, not to say the shared victory of 1945, having never quite died.
One of the institutions that would be most transformed by this would be the Conservative Party. Half of the Red Wall turned Blue in 2019, as most of the other half will in 2024. The Conservative Party became electorally dependent on constituencies that had voted for Corbyn in 2017, and which would have done so again if he had stuck to his Bennite guns on Brexit. Next time, it will acquire many seats that had voted for Corbyn both times.
Accordingly, and not because of Covid-19, the Government has adopted Modern Monetary Theory for the purpose of heavy reindustrialisation under close central government direction, including a strong dose of public ownership, and with the trade unions in government. The Durham Miners' Gala is now the national cultural mainstream, with ambitious Conservative MPs anxious to be associated with it.
So the Conservatives' electorate is already made up of people who, given the option, would keep their Russian passports up to date rather than risk any return to the tyranny of the Starmer-voting people who ostentatiously brandished their EU ones.
And what of the people whom Keir Starmer has single-handedly, and over a period of only a few weeks, turned into a Black Wall that is waiting to collapse on top of a bewildered Labour Party, especially but not exclusively in London?
Their mass abstention, their votes for small Left parties, and their votes for locally organised Independent candidates, will deliver a bonanza to a grateful Conservative Party that is already courting them.
But given the option, they would keep their Chinese passports up to date rather than risk any return to the tyranny of the Starmer-voting people who ostentatiously brandished their EU ones.
The Centre is the think tank for this new era. It already has plenty going on.
So the Conservatives' electorate is already made up of people who, given the option, would keep their Russian passports up to date rather than risk any return to the tyranny of the Starmer-voting people who ostentatiously brandished their EU ones.
And what of the people whom Keir Starmer has single-handedly, and over a period of only a few weeks, turned into a Black Wall that is waiting to collapse on top of a bewildered Labour Party, especially but not exclusively in London?
Their mass abstention, their votes for small Left parties, and their votes for locally organised Independent candidates, will deliver a bonanza to a grateful Conservative Party that is already courting them.
But given the option, they would keep their Chinese passports up to date rather than risk any return to the tyranny of the Starmer-voting people who ostentatiously brandished their EU ones.
The Centre is the think tank for this new era. It already has plenty going on.
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