Comment on King's coat of arms to feature on new UK passports

• Flax_vert@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Passports are basically letters from heads of state requesting safe access for their citizen who holds that letter. The oldest record of such being recorded in the Old Testament book of Nehemiah.

  Nehemiah 2:7-10

  And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah, and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.” And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me. Then I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel.

  The front cover of your British passport should include the following:

  His Britannic Majesty’s Secretary of State requests and requires in the name of His Majesty all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance, and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary.

  I believe other countries have a similar note.

  Over time, they got more and more standardised into identity documents, but that front cover is basically the core part.

  So, the King doesn’t need a letter from himself asking for safe passage.

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  • xxce2AAb@feddit.dk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Interesting. Thank you.

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  • tal@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    The King probably had one as Prince of Wales, but Queen Elizabeth II I don’t believe ever had one.

    abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/…/story?id=42109699

    The Prince of Wales’ car collided with a deer while he was driving at the Queen’s Balmoral Castle estate in Scotland over the weekend.

    Prince Charles walked away uninjured from behind the wheel, but his car, an Audi, was damaged. Clarence House declined to comment on the crash.

    I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to take your permission note I gave you to drive away. We can’t have you smashing into my deer.

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    • Flax_vert@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I remember Prince Philip had one, he actually was pressured into giving it up after getting into a car accident.

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      • tal@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Now I know how The Onion feels around Trump news stories.

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• ohulancutash@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  “Hello, old chap. I wonder, have you met my Navy?”

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• milkisklim@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Since all British passports are issued in the name of the Sovereign and he has the Crown he just sort of waves a hand and other countries pretend that’s alright since he can’t really holiday to the south of France.

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• i_am_not_a_robot@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  He just waves a freshly minted 50 as he walks through passport control.

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  • xxce2AAb@feddit.dk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    “You see this 50 quid note. That’s my face on it. Questions? No? Good.”

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