I’m a remainer but also a realist, Brexit in some form is going to happen. The Guardian along with other Brexit hating rags refuses to accept that leaving the EU at all can be nothing other than a disaster of epic proportions especially with a Tory government leading the exit negotiations. It also refuses to acknowledge (or even mention) that the Labour Party’s Brexit strategy is the same as the Tories ie one massive fudge. At a time when Labour are leading in the polls and should be pressing the government hard it’s leader is absent preferring instead to do photo shoot’s for mens magazines yet you won’t find any criticism in the Guardian for fear of alienating it’s dwindling readership.
I believe that common sense will see the UK gradually leave the EU (of which it’s never been a willing participant anyway) with very little change for those like me living and working in an EU country.
Mr Cole, how it affects you all depends on the end game and whether or not you will need citizenship, work related visa or some form of Carte Sejour. Even if some sort of deal is struck on our rights, there will still be some form of registration process, some formula to adhere to.
Well getting a CdS from your Mairie would be quite a big deal, because mairies don’t issue them You have to get them from the Préfecture. I doubt mairies would be given the job of issuing whatever the new document is either, this is a national matter not a local one.
That aside, I don’t expect it to be a big deal. It will be just one more hassle to find time for. Those of us who are working could do without wasting a couple of evenings getting paperwork together and maybe half a day at the prefecture, so a minor inconvenience will likely be all it boils down to.
If it takes our wise rulers two years to begin to extricate from the EU, it will then take them ten years to try to negotiate their way back in.
Good luck with that.
and it won’t be on the same terms as the UK currently enjoys. All those achievements made by Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair will be lost forever. Far better to withdraw the Article 50 and have done with it to preserve the status quo.
While the original architect has given the view that it could be withdrawn the actual language seems to be irrevocable.
That said I am sure that if the EU 27 were in agreement we could withdraw our intent to leave the EU - quite where that would leave the situation is up for grabs, perhaps the EU would try to enforce some re-joining deal, perhaps they would welcome us back with open arms. Who knows?
Withdrawal of Article 50 would probably require another vote in Parliament so it isn’t going to happen given that the Labour Party is scared it might lose seats at the next election.
I think the pain could be very bad for people like me and my husband. It’s likely to be more straightforward for those of you fortunate to be fit, healthy and working and able to support yourselves financially. For us it may be catastrophic.
My husband worked for many years in France but now finds himself chronically ill, housebound (and largely bed-bound) and dependent on support in many ways. I am his carer and it’s very difficult for me to work, although I do work 1 day a week during the holiday season cleaning holiday villas. Without the financial support we receive from the government in France we would be destitute. We find ourselves living in a small HLM apartment, we claim ACS to top up our CMU otherwise a mutuelle would be beyond our means, we claim housing benefit and I claim a tiny amount of unemployment benefit during the winter. What happens to us if we are no longer eligible for these things once the UK leaves the EU? I have been worrying about this since the referendum result last year and immediately after the result I was nearly frantic with worry. My only consolation, if you can call it that, is that my husband is likely to die before the UK leaves the EU.
It’s not so easy for me to be as blasé about the situation as some of you are.
The one thing I think we can take from the recent agreement is that there is a willingness to burn some midnight oil where necessary and come up with a deal to save the day, at least mostly. Late night meetings in smoke filled rooms** is the stuff of politics, of course, so not that surprising but it reassures me somewhat that we will not arrive in March 2019 with no deal and so avoid some of the worst consequences to our economy in the short term.
Farage is, not surprisingly spitting tacks because it is apparent that he is not going to get his way as he thought (I’m sure his £70k a year MEP pension will mollify him) but the sort of crash and burn Brexit that he and the likes of Rees-Mogg wanted almost certainly would have been disastrous. That scenario, at least, seems less likely.
However Brexit is already hurting the economy and we can see that those who were worried about negative consequences were right to do so.
** though since all the smoking bans I guess that the rooms are less smoke filled these days.
You have to get them from the Préfecture. I doubt mairies would be given the job of issuing whatever the new document is either, this is a national matter not a local one.