E.R.
16. My Lords, it is not a small step. It has very significant
implications for the whole schome of new citizenships created by the British Nationality Act 1981. That Act for the first time put
our citizenship law on to a clear and rational footing. Citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies, which is what we have under the
1948 Act, gives a confused and imprecise idea of where people belong.
It confers citizenship without regard to immigration laws which, by
controlling entry to the United Kingdom, seem to negate one of the
main purposes of citizenship.
16A. The 1981 Act gets away from this confusion by creating one
citizenship, British citizenship, for those who belong to the
United Kingdom; a second, British Dependent Territories citizenship,
for those who have connections with a dependent territory; and a
third, British Overseas citizenship, for those citizens of the
United Kingdom and Colonies who have no continuing connections with
either the United Kingdom or our remaining dependent territories.
16B.
Naturally many people who are now citizens of the United Kingdom
and Colonies will be disappointed that in future they are to be known
by a different title. But that disappointment is a price which must
be paid if we are to get away from the present misleading and
unsatisfactory position. To the extent that exceptions are made, the
position will remain misleading and unsatisfactory. It is contrary to
the logic of the 1981 Act, my lords, to describe people as British
citizens if their connections are actually with a dependent territory
and not with the United Kingdom.
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