It was in this week's City AM, but those have already gone to recycling so I can't give credit to the original author.
The gist of it was that there's no point squealing (The Guardian and The Daily Mailexpressgraph making common cause for once) that the UK government has decided to allow a foreign-owned business to print UK passports instead of British business De La Rue.
De La Rue don't just print UK bank notes and passports. As the self same Guardian points out:
De La Rue also prints money for Qatar, Kuwait, the Bahamas and the Seychelles, among others...
As well as UK passports, the company manufactures identity documents and e-passports for countries as far apart as Trinidad and Tobago, Qatar and Afghanistan. On occasion it also uses its printing presses to make special-edition bank notes. A Star Wars note issued in support of the Together For Short Lives charity raised more than £185,000 in an eBay auction in November.
If all those countries followed the preferences of their own Guardian/Daily Mailexpressgraph protectionist tendencies, then De La Rue would be in real trouble.
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