Fascinating programme on the wireless just now with @NickCohen4 and Simon Heffer - not least because Heffer, clearly honestly (but entirely erroneously) believes that the UK government has guaranteed the rights of EU citizens living in the UK.
Heffer even seems to believe that UK citizens have been granted UK *citizenship* - something which has never been suggested and which is clearly entirely untrue - but, that aside, his core belief that EU citizens living in the UK have been told they can stay is widely shared.
The reality, of course, is that EU citizen who have been living here for 5 years or more have been told they will *subject to a withdrawal agreement with the EU* be able to *apply* for "settlement" - a new status with reduced rights.
The assumption seems to be that most who apply will be successful; but obviously many will not be successful because they will fail to provide the right bits of paper to the Home Office in time, will be unable to afford the fees, or whatever.
The caveat "subject to a withdrawal agreement with the EU" is critical however. When asked by @hilarybennmp what will happen to EU citizens given a "no deal Brexit" @carolinenokes and (more recently) @DominicRaab had bad news (though they both tried to bury it in evasions).
Nokes's response to Benn's question is here: goo.gl/EAYkvi and Raab's is here: parliamentlive.tv/event/index/53…
As Raab finally admitted: "The Prime Minister's position has always been that we will not make unilateral statements or commitments in relation to this subject". IOW, if you cut through all the crap, EU citizens living in the UK are a bit stuffed if there's no deal.
Of course, while this *has* always been @theresa_may's position, she has been quite clever at giving the impression that her position is the exact opposite; to the extent that many - even well informed intelligent people like Heffer - fondly believe that May has given guarantees
This raises an interesting question: Who is May trying to fool? The EU know her real position so I suppose she must be trying to fool her UK audience into believing she cares about EU citizens and their UK families.
And May continues with this subterfuge even though many of her Leaver audience would be more impressed with her if she plainly stated her actual position.
What puzzles me is why?
