Brexit Hell

Thursday's Editorial: Rather than comment on the hellish subject of Brexit as it will affect – indeed already is affecting – the UK, since British BoT readers will have an unshakable opinion on the subject one way or the other while foreign readers remain bemused, we can only look at the results as these will affect us from outside the deck: the Britons living in the EU-27 and the Europeans in the UK both.

As for those who are married to a foreigner, well God help us all!   

‘...Boris Johnson’s decision to prorogue parliament could complicate Britain’s relations with the European Union by “delegitimising” his government’s no-deal Brexit policy in European eyes, according to Norbert Röttgen, chairman of the German Bundestag’s influential foreign affairs committee...’ says The Sunday Times (here). Yes, it may be bad for European affairs (like Catalonia leaving would be bad for Spain) as the EU would be smaller, with less population and GDP; but the effects of high politics is about the people who are caught up by them – not the governments and their statistics.

From El País in English comes ‘Brexit is a recurring nightmare for many of the 3.5 million EU nationals living in the United Kingdom and who, for the first time, do not feel so welcome in the country. When Britain voted to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum, most EU residents in the UK were unprepared for the result...’. Indeed, as noted in El Español here, between one thing and the other, ‘Brexit has poisoned the lives of five million people, says the British living in Spain’.

We Brits in the EU-27 are (vaguely) thought to be around 1.2 million, although nobody seems very sure.

Not that all the Brits resident in Spain are against Brexit, as The Olive Press discovers here, although they probably should be, as we learn more.

Now, we shouldn’t panic and start building false doors in our attics (and start keeping a diary), but it does appear that we are not particularly treasured by our hosts, and a push against Europeans from London would probably mean a similar push against the expatriate (or immigrant if you insist) Brits in Europe. The difference being, most Europeans in the UK are there to work, while many of us here in Europe – Spain and Portugal in particular – are here to retire, or to take it easy, or are on the run from some unpleasantness.

Soon, Brits tourists will need visas, GB stickers on their cars and, as The Guardian says, ‘...to be prepared to wait for four months before you can take your ferret on holiday with you...’.  A useful site called Get Ready for Brexit comes from HM Gov here. For residents (those with the green letter from the immigration police), things may be a little easier, but only because there are less of us and no one has got around to considering our future (so nice to hear when you are retired). However, there may be a freeze on pensions from London from next year.

A Spanish TV channel helpfully showed V for Vendetta (trailer) the other night (the Guy Fawkes with the ‘anonymous’ mask movie). Innocent fun, no doubt.

Boris Johnson wants to resolve the Irish border issue (except that Europeans would be able to stream into the UK over a non-existent Irish border), but the UK has another European border which also needs resolution. The one with La Linea.

Whether Brexit will be better for the UK (honestly, who believes that?), it certainly won’t be for the Brits living in Europe.