For the first part of my life, I travelled on a South African passport. In those days, it didn’t take you to many places. To show their opposition to apartheid, much of the world banned South Africans from visiting. You couldn’t go to most of Africa, communist eastern Europe, China or many countries in the Middle East. The UK passport that I have held for 28 years opens many more countries’ doors, often without a visa.
But the value of British nationality could be about to plunge, according to a Quality of Nationality Index published last week. This is because not only does UK nationality, at present, come with a passport waved through airports in much of the world; it also confers the freedom to live and work in the 31 other countries of the EU and the European Free Trade Association — and that right may be about to disappear, or at least be restricted, after Brexit.
So which country’s nationality is most valued? France’s, according to the index, and that has been true for the past eight years.