I am hoping that eventually people will get behind Brexit, "Hobson's Choice" really. I think this will begin to happen once article 50 is triggered and the two year negotiations with the remaining EU countries get under way. I do not share your view that there will be problems regarding EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens in the EU,I think that issue will be one of the easier issues to agree and I hope to see something concrete in the early stages of the negotiations.
The majority of Ex-Pat Brits living in the EU are in the sunnier spots of southern Europe. Rajoy, the Spanish Prime Minister has already stated that the Spanish economy will collapse without the British, and he will work to ensure that the status quo remains. To go along with France and Germany and those who would wish us deported would require a 'bribe' of such gigantic proportions that it would be unfeasible. It is said that 300,000 Brits live in Spain, but that only refers to those who have registered and are fiscally resident. The true figure is probably double that. Additionally there are tens of thousands of British residents who own holiday homes. And to that, you can add 15 million tourists each year coming from Britain. Without that influx of wages, pensions and spending money, the Spanish economy is in line for a real kicking. And they aren't alone. Portugal, Greece, Italy and France, together with Cyprus and Malta will suffer greatly. I hope Germany has deep pockets!
I'm going over for a weekend in late April, to stay with a friend who is one of those unofficial residents, In the past he and his wife spent six months a year there but now he's there for the full twelve months each year on a nice quiet bit of the east coast.
Blair says Rise Up Against Brexit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38996179 Funny how he looked the other way when the people "rised" up over the Iraq war. Strange lot, politicians. Mark, having lived in Malta pre-2004 and pre-Euro, I seem to remember how people in that country hated the idea of being controlled by Brussels. Indeed, my ex-boss at the radio/TV station* I worked at was a convinced the European project would ruin Malta and allowed Norman Lowell and Karmenu's Front Maltin Inqumu plenty of airtime to help get the message across back in 2004. It didn't work of course, but I am somewhat shocked at how today Malta has turned from being anti-EU to pro-EU. Joe Muscat needs to moderate his choice of words at the upcoming Brexit. *Media in Malta, whether TV, Radio, print media is heavily politicised, media outlets are owned, funded and operated by the MLP or PN.
Blair must be short of something to do now that he has finished lining his pockets, all his intervention will do is stir things up and the remainers will be back at square one fighting the referendum all over again. Its now the time for people to come together.
I have to say, for vested interests, the status quo of being in Europe was, in my eyes, preferable to leaving. Common sense also dictated that our closest neighbours would be the best with which to trade. However there is an anti-British sentiment which is rising in temperature, with each of us individually being blamed for the decision of the electorate. A friend of mine was subject to an attempt by a taxi driver to charge him extra because "the price on the meter is only for European citizens". @Markham says much the same is happening in Malta with his French pharmacist. It will only get worse, and may get out of hand. I'm now getting a little worried about the impact on my own situation. If there is going to be a mass exodus of the ex-pat populace, my business - that of a taxi driver providing a service to those same ex-pats, plus the production of a magazine aimed squarely at them and carrying advertising from other ex-pat businesses - is going to be under threat. Now, the other concern is that my wife is not ex-pat, at least with regards to Britain, and I can't imagine the British government, having sold the ex-pats down the river, being any more helpful in any application for families to be allowed to stay together where one family member does not have the right of abode in Britain. It seems that the Vienna Convention (1969) is going to be swept firmly under the carpet. I don't really want to live in Britain. Consequently, if the Brexit hits the fan, the logical solution would be to up sticks and move to the Philippines. With that in mind, I think that stockpiling big lumps of cash in a Filipino bank account might be the most prudent thing to do. Duterte excepted, what are the drawbacks?
Just watched Blair incoherent speech, seems to have lost some of his speaking skills that he once had, nothing new in the speech, basically a re-run of the referendum debate. He had a go at the Labour party for not offering resistance to Brexit, he obviously has forgotten that half the Labour voters had voted for Brexit. Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't Blair the one who said only 30,000 people would come to the UK the year free movement started and 300,000 came?
I listened to it also he sounded robotic very odd,who's this we he is referring to? I think he wants and will manage a leadership challenge to Corbyn,laughable maybe but so is the labour party,remember this post .
That did cross my mind too but I think he is too tainted by the Iraq war to get back into front line politics, I think he's just happy with being a nuisance around the Brexit issue at the moment Blair's glory days are well and truly behind him, like Clegg once you lie and go back on your word the electorate doesn't forget and forgive.
Disagree I think he's working on a white charger riding in to save labour and the country philosophy.
Time will tell, he's now getting a good bashing now from the media for his speech this morning, he was good in his time and I voted for him but I have no trust in him now and I'm sure a lot of other people who once voted for him feel the same way and do not take much notice of what he says.
Blair will return because it is prophesied. God knows that Blair is suffering from a Messiah Complex. (He knows this because Blair cc'd him in the memo) Anybody suffering from a Messiah Complex is convinced of The Second Coming. Here he is, (con)descending from on high, after debriefing God. "The pope looks set for ...um....a few more years, so I um..thought I'd come and steer Britain away ...um...from the abyss before I become leader of ....the Holy Roman Catholic Church.
I have had my fill of being patronised by a certain sneering liberal element who is so puffed-up by his own self-importance and red "flag" that I am calling it a day. But not before I address some points raised by @CampelloChris who is in a similar situation to myself. My British friends here agree that an anti-British sentiment is growing particularly among EU nationals of other countries. Some Maltese nationalists still rail against Britain and periodically make vociferous demands for Malta to cease being a monarchy and quit the Commonwealth but in the main they remain friendly and many are pro-British. The Gozitans appear to be more pro-British than the natives of the "big island", however. I should perhaps clarify that the pharmacist in yesterday's incident is a Gozitan, it is the shop's owners who are French. Two doors down is another Chemist's who were pleased to have my custom. You are in a better position than I. Provided both you and your wife have Residence Permits for Spain, you are economically-active and can produce at least 6 months' worth of accounts in support and you can demonstrate that your "centre of life" is in Spain - Spanish bank accounts, own/lease property etc., etc., you satisfy the basic requirements for the grant of a Family Permit. That's assuming that you really want to move back to the UK. I don't but even if I did, I, as a retired person, do not satisfy the principal requirement of being economically-active. Unlike other EU nations, Britain does not grant Family Permits to the families of retired persons, only those who are either in full-time employment or are self-employed. Yes. That does appear to be so. What is totally inexcusable is the one-sided attitude exemplified by Britain's metropolitan liberal elite, such as Ms Chakrabarti who was a panellist on last night's Question Time. She and they demand that Theresa May immediately guarantees the rights of EU nationals to continue living and working in the UK; they are very vocal on this point and activists in the House of Lords intend to amend the Brexit Bill accordingly. However, this same shrill group makes absolutely no mention of the plight of the estimated 1.3 million Britons living elsewhere in the EU - many of whom voted against Brexit. What about are our rights? After all, many of us do pay tax in the UK. The government will be forced to accept the Lords' amendment in order to get the Bill passed to allow Mrs May to trigger Article 50 at the EU summit on the 8th March. The fate of Britain's ex-pats will then be ignored by Britain, lost in the rush to seek a settlement, and left to the European Parliament and Commission to decide. Possibly unfavourably. For a start you should think very seriously about this. You don't appear to be anywhere near retirement age and therefore the need to earn money will be a major consideration. There are foreigners in employment but almost all work for the Philippine subsidiary of a foreign enterprise. Ownership of bars, restaurants and Sari-Saris has been tried and foreigners who do this either fail due to unfair local competition or have to hand over thick envelopes to protection rackets (eg the Police) and other petty officials on a regular basis just to stay in business. As for "stockpiling big lumps of cash in a Filipino bank account", my advice is a firm "don't". You need to be aware that, although all bank deposits of up to Php500,000 in aggregate per customer (about €9,000) are insured by PDIC, I can tell you from bitter personal experience that claims made by foreigners are not honoured in practice. As a foreigner, you will have to prove the source of every single cent that you credit to your bank account: if the bank - or the BSP - isn't satisfied with the documentation you provide (originals plus 3 notarised and Apostilled copies, in the case of HSBC), your account(s) will be closed without notice and the funds seized. Make an incomplete return and you face criminal proceedings and a jail term. I am not joking.
I try to follow as much as i possibly can, and maybe I am just an uneducated foreigner, but I don't see the relevance of this latest link of yours to anything. I may be suffering from an early symptom of dementia....
He is referring to Markham's somewhat outrageous claim that on leaving the EU we will lose landing rights in Europe and the US amongst others. Markam is claiming that we are only party to the Open Skies treaty so long as we remain subject to the ECJ, to be honest I don't know but I find it highly unlikely that flights out of Heathrow to Europe and will stop overnight.
Easier to attack and try to discredit the poster than investigate, isn't it "Ryanair fears UK could lose access to EU's Open Skies" - Reuters "Ryanair CEO says Brexit contingencies include 'Armageddon' scenario" - Reuters via Daily Mail "Britain could be left with NO flights to Europe in March 2019 if 'clueless' ministers fail to strike a Brexit deal, Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary warns" - Daily Mail "Brexit deadlock could halt flights to Europe, warns Ryanair boss" - The Guardian The link that @Methersgate provided is not the correct pointer to the Open Skies Agreement, hence Dom's understandable confusion.
