I REMEMBER having my old navy blue British passport. It seemed at the time to generate a kind of respect when I travelled abroad, and I was proud of it.

Then we entered the era of football hooliganism and British thuggery on the continent, and I was embarrassed by that distinctive passport. Now the Government has decided to bring it back.

On the cover it states: United Kingdom of Great Britain. But we are not united and we certainly are not great – we are a shabby, shoddy nation of huge inequalities and social injustice. I will be ashamed of that new, tragically ironic GB passport.

Theresa May says we are “a proud, great nation.” Really, nowadays?

The NHS is deliberately kept in a state of perpetual crisis, operations cancelled, waiting times longer; the social care system has collapsed; schools are in a budgetary crisis; social housing is not allowed and so we have 120,000 children living in temporary accommodation; homelessness and sleeping rough has increased by 130 per cent; three million children live in poverty; each town has its foodbanks and cash-converting shops; more workers have fewer employment rights than ever before. Inflation is rising higher than wages and food is already dearer – and Brexit, when it happens, will bring further poverty.

We have clever idiots in charge of the Brexit negotiations who are the laughing stock of Europe.

For a retired police officer whistleblower to spill the beans and tell the truth is considered a greater offence than a Cabinet Minister lying to Parliament. Our free press prints malicious jingoistic drivel while its owners stash their money in tax havens. Tax avoidance and tax evasion by the rich and corporate continue.

The blue passport was indeed a symbol – of past times when, in some respects, we stood alone and were great (always remembering that imperial greatness was based on callous exploitation). Now it will be a symbol of hypocritical incompetence and misdirected nostalgia, of la-la land thinking.A nation that shoots itself in the foot is not well suited to stand alone. I am not proud of the nation we have become, I would prefer a European identity to a modern British one. I like being in a team.

JOHN ROBERTS Lower Scholes Oakworth