- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
He has been one of the UK’s favourite and most prominent refugees for two-thirds of a century. Now Paddington Bear – official name Paddington Brown – has been granted a British passport.
The co-producer of the latest Paddington film said the Home Office had issued the document to the fictional Peruvian-born character – listing for completeness the official observation that he is, in fact, a bear.
“We wrote to the Home Office asking if we could get a replica, and they actually issued Paddington with an official passport – there’s only one of these,” Rob Silva told Radio Times.
…
He produced the document, complete with Paddington’s photo inside, adding: “You wouldn’t think the Home Office would have a sense of humour, but under official observations, they’ve just listed him as Bear.”
I assume this is meant to be some cutesy publicity stunt or a reaffirmation of the UK identity?
It feels a bit misguided to me. In a time where thousands of people die trying to attain better living prospects in safer countries (and those that survive often end up exploited and ‘illegal’), a fictional character is awarded the near-unattainable protection of a legal status because people are fond of it.
What message is conveyed here?
People need a bit of fun from time to time. This seems lovely and did not cost an arm and a leg to pull off
That you shouldn’t become upset over a children’s fictional character.
Don’t worry, the Home Office is already on to him
I’m not upset. I’m just wondering why the choice was made to make legal status the focus of this undertaking
Initially they had a PR stunt in which he was deported to Rwanda, but the focus groups were not reacting very positively.