So here it is ! The much-awaited "yes, we have no tomatoes" 🧵You knew it was coming !

Years of journalistic experience fired me up on a perilous mission to see if, as is being claimed in UK media, the tomato shortage is "a Europe-wide thing and nothing to do with Brexit" 1/6 So I went to my local supermarket and yes ! THESE ARE ACTUAL PICTURES, LIVE, OF REAL TOMATOES !!! chez my local @Leclerc !
I quizzed the (somewhat taken aback) person in charge of fruit and veg, asking her if she had noticed any shortages of fruit/veg - "surtout des tomates ?" 2

An interesting example of how Brexit gets "edited out" 😀🧵

I heard a report on @BBCFarmingToday at 6.45 today on the causes of 🇬🇧 price increases. It was a package of a longer report by @DanSaladinoUK
In "Farming Today" we hear him ask CEO of Iceland if Brexit ..... 1/4 "is in the mix" - "Yes !" he replies. Their package lasted 4'20
2 hrs later, another edit of the package went out on @BBCr4today which was LONGER - 5'20 and we hear about ALL the factors like drought, sanctions, strikes, energy etc - ... 2/4

So now it really is goodbye, and it hurts. On a storm-filled Sunday, here's a thread (OK ! my 3rd in 8 years !) on why Brexit has affected so many of our lives - yours, I’m sure, if you follow me - and the only one I can really talk about with any expertise – my own /1 I grew up in Britain. It comes out in the mince pies which even now are my go-to at Christmas, my never ending search for the perfect cup of tea and my accent when I speak the French I worked on TV and radio in for 30 yrs, even write books in (but not my diary) /2

This is one of my rare threads but it's about free movement and I really care about it

So I went and listened to what Gove said this morning on @BBCr4today about whether Brits will still get free health care and be able to study with Erasmus as from next year

@BenPBradshaw To be fair, he doesn't actually lie 👇

It's worse. He disingenuously deceives people into thinking the answer is yes, by talking about a "period" - without mentioning that "period" means you have to already be here in the EU over the next THREE WEEKS or be already studying

My 3rd "thread" only, in 8 years here !

Why does this Free Movement stuff matter so much to me (and so many others judging by reactions today ?)

It's NOT about rich people. I grew up in 70s UK which was the "economic basket place" of Europe (that's why we knocked on the door for ten years desperate to get in !) I come from a very modest family and as there was mass unemployment in the UK it was great to have the right to look for work anywhere all over the then Common Market - (even better now that it's 27 countries. Way more job opportunities .../

Why am I so incensed about free movement ? Thread (my 1st ever in English in 7 years😀)
It’s personal. I come from a modest Cornish background. In the 70’s the UK was the sick man of Europe. Many of us Brits were only too happy to be able to look for work somewhere in the EEC / (Google “Auf Wiedersehen, Pet” if you’re under 40.)
Things are better now, but if Brexit crashes the economy, even short term, UK workers will regret not having the automatic right to apply for jobs in 30 other countries, the world's biggest single market /...

Vous pensiez que le Brexit ne pouvait devenir plus surréaliste ? (fil nécessaire, sorry !)
Les députés GB vont sans doute voter aujourd'hui contre des élections législatives en décembre.
Devinez, en revanche, ce que ces mêmes députés GB vont probablement approuver demain ? Vous l'avez deviné ! Des élections législatives, eh oui, en décembre ! 🤡🤡
How is this possible, damned ?
Johnson va essayer d'imposer des élections à sa guise aujourd'hui, car avec une majorité de moins 45 le parlement actuel n'est pas top pour lui

Journée historique au Parlement GB aujourd'hui (encore une 😀)
Pourquoi ?
Impossible à raconter en 280 caractères, tant c'est farfelu, donc 2e fil depuis 6 ans que je tweete ...
Les députés reviennent de vacances et ont à peine 4 jours avant d'être "suspendus" par You Know Who Aujourd'hui débat sur une motion des oppositions réunies proposant un report de 3 mois après le 31 oct. afin d'éviter un no-deal (le fait que l'UE pourra, et probablement dira non ne semble pas retenir outre-mesure l'attention des députés ou journalistes d'outre-Manche. Passons)

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. 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.