In June 2016, just before the EU referendum, Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Priti Patel signed a pledge to EU citizens in the UK. It said that, if the UK decided to leave the EU, they would automatically be granted indefinite leave to remain. Here it is.
Five years later, not a single aspect of this pledge has been honoured. Nobody has been granted automatic leave to remain. Many, even of those who have been granted settled status, have had to go through pain and humiliation to get it. To be allowed to stay in their own home.
And even those with settled status have been refused any physical proof. Some fear leaving the country in case, on return, they are victims of a systems outage at passport control, with no way of showing they have a right to be entering the country.
Some fear inviting relatives to visit them, in case those relatives are subjected to the sort of hostile treatment at the border that we are already seeing - treatment that is rapidly gaining the UK a reputation as a country where foreigners aren't welcome.
It gets worse. The UK government has set an arbitrary deadline of 30 June - three weeks' time - for those EU nationals who've not yet applied to submit their applications. Yes, THREE WEEKS' time.
As things stand it is inevitable that, unless the Westminster government extends the deadline, a great number of EU nationals who have, through no fault of their own, been unable to apply for settled status, will on 1 July bcome "illegal".
This means they will automatically lose the right to live, work or rent accommodation in the UK. Many will be people who've lived here for years, working and paying taxes. Some will have British spouses. Some will be children. They are our friends and neighbours and colleagues.
Why not apply, you might ask? It's not that simple. Although there have been communications campaigns, it is clear there are many who are still unaware even of the need to apply, let alone the deadline.
In particular, there are a number of vulnerable groups who are in real danger of falling through the cracks, including:
Children in care
Adopted children
Elderly people alone or in care, some with dementia or other conditions
People with limited English or digital skills (cont.)
Long-term residents who believe that their Indefinite Leave to Remain or Permanent Residence status is sufficient;
Those married to UK nationals who assume (wrongly) that this guarantees their right to remain
Although the government has given funds to charities to help people with applications, it's those very people - the vulnerable ones - that the charities have struggled to help face to face during the pandemic. And they now face an enormous backlog. With three weeks to go.
The government has said it will show leniency to people with a valid excuse for delay. But what assurance, after Windrush, and with a dysfunctional Home Office, can that give anyone?
For that matter, the Home Office already has a backlog of 300,000 cases - not all of which will be resolved in time. People who will be left in limbo until they hear back from the Home Office, even if they are eventually granted settled status.
This is an emergency. We have seen the tragedy that has afflicted so many of the Windrush generation, and we have a collective moral duty to ensure the same doesn't happen again with EU nationals living in this country.
So what can we do? Write to our elected representatives, whatever party they are from and whatever body they sit in. Demand that they see the moral imperative. Don't let them fob you off. Hold their feet to the fire.
Tell them this is an impending catastrophe and that it will be a stain on all of us if it happens. If they are Conservative, don't let them tell you about all the people who've succesfully applied. Insist on knowing what they're doing for the people who haven't applied.
Demand an extension to the deadline. Cite Covid. Cite the Home Office backlog. Cite our international reputation. Cite old-fashioned decency and humanity.
Whether or not the deadline is extended, demand to know what your elected representative is doing, personally, to ensure all EU citizens are reached before 30 June. Don't be fobbed off by statistics and jargon.
Demand physical proof for those with settled status. Point out that if the government can provide a printable QR code for those who haven't been vaccinated, they can do it for EU nationals.
Pick three friends. The ones who like to say they're "not political". Show them this thread. Ask them to do their bit.
When, like me, you've been an unquestioning Unionist for most of your life and then started to have severe doubts in the post-Brexit years, you begin to see things you didn't see before. It's hard to overstate the (negative) subliminal effect of this imagery. THREAD
You may not be 100% sold on the case of independence, you may indeed have doubts about it on multiple levels. But you understand the aspiration, because the very people who should be trying to make you "believe in Britain" all too often end up pushing you away again.
It's not that such imagery is representative of the views of most Unionists - God help us if that were the case. But it's certainly indicative of the mindset of far too many people - in government, in the media and elsewhere - who hold the levers of power in the UK.
Given Labour's description of a youth mobility scheme with the EU as "synonymous with free movement", I've made a list of 25 other things that might come into that category so we can avoid wasting their time and let them get on with the business of serious opposition (thread):
When I look back over the last eight years, one image dominates.
September 2019, and @paulasherriff 's pleas to Johnson to tone down his language - language being quoted back to her colleagues in death threats - is dismissed as 'humbug' . THREAD
It wasn't the day the ugliness started - heaven knows there'd been enough of that under Theresa May, who bears far more responsibility for it than some would have you believe.
But it was the day I realised without any lingering doubt that Johnson didn't care what his words led to.
And it was the day I realised that - even if some of his colleagues cared a little bit - they clearly didn't care enough.
If you have progressive instincts and don’t live in Scotland, I suspect it can be hard to understand the ambivalence or even hostility felt towards Labour by many people who might naturally vote for them were they living in England. THREAD
Maybe, paradoxically, you need to look at the Tories to understand.
The party of Truss, Braverman and Anderson.
The party which lets rampant Islamophobes retain the whip.
The party which accepts money from people who would wipe out our freedoms in the blink of an eye.
Because when you do live in Scotland it’s hard to escape the impression that, for all that, it’s the SNP who many prominent Labour people would have you believe are the main threat to us all.
"This is what happens when you normalise the unthinkable.
First it becomes thinkable.
Then sayable.
Then ‘desirable’, ‘the only option’, ‘common sense’.
Once out there, it cannot be unthought, unsaid, unnormalised".
THREAD
I’ve been thinking about it a lot over the past year, as Rwanda has entered the national vocabulary.
We all know what Rwanda means these days.
It’s much more than just a country.
It’s a policy.
A way of thinking.
A statement of ill intent.
I thought of it again a few weeks back, when I heard former Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland give an interview to @TheNewsAgents in the aftermath of Suella Braverman’s resignation.