Never done a "thread" before but I feel so strongly about this !
Mrs May didn't tell the truth today when she implied stopping EU citizens' free movement into the UK was not going to stop British people's automatic right to live, study, work or retire anywhere on the continent.
Mrs May didn't tell the truth today when she implied stopping EU citizens' free movement into the UK was not going to stop British people's automatic right to live, study, work or retire anywhere on the continent.
I should know. I arrived penniless in France in the early 80s when there were no jobs in the UK. Since then I have been working, living and loving in Paris, Berlin and Brussels - visa and hassle-free all over the place ! Brits will no longer be able to do this.
Take her point about Erasmus. Ask young Swiss people about that ! They have been denied it since Switzerland stopped free movement in 2014. They have been trying to get back into Erasmus ever since. So many young people who could have experienced so many cultures, languages.
Then this whole thing about the UK only letting in "qualified applicants." I worked my way up in France to being a TV journalist and also Programme Director of Radio France Internationale. It took ten years of hard graft till my first big break. If I'd have sent in a CV ....
from the UK, it would have been binned. You don't get first on the ladder jobs by applying from abroad. And on top of this, firms in the EU can now choose between candidates from 26 other countries who have the automatic right to work anywhere in the EU. They have to prove ....
they can justify employing a 3rd country national, that costs time and money, so they don't. You on the other hand will have to be very rich to survive the wait, and take out private health insurance etc. That goes for retirees too - they will be 3rd country nationals ...
and will not have automatic right to EU health care. So only the very rich will be able to do what millions of Brits have done effortlessly over the last 40 years. Also you probably won't be able to stay more than 3 months at a time anyway. It's also, to end :) psychological !
Free movement gives you automatic rights. I have never once been made to feel in France that I didn't have the right to be living or working here, as a European in Europe. Not at all the case for 3rd country nationals. Many more Brits have taken advantage of free movement...
than vice versa over the years. Yet UK media and politicians treat it like it just goes one way. By proudly announcing "we're stopping FOM once and for all" Mrs May doesn't even seem to realize she's taking away from everyone a right that made my life, for one, infinitely richer
That's it, no more threads, promise. But when the PM of your home country is taking away not only our rights but future generations of Brits, and on top of it denies it, well sometimes you need more than a tweet to say just how gutted you are ...
