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Won’t ever forgive or forget Brexit. Took away our rights, and the rights of our kids, to live in Europe and to be European. My contempt is boundless. Edit: Bi
by darkteflon 4y ago
Won’t ever forgive or forget Brexit. Took away our rights, and the rights of our kids, to live in Europe and to be European. My contempt is boundless.
Edit: Bit surprised at some of these responses. You absolutely can use the word “European” to mean “a participant in the political project that is Europe”. This has nothing to do with ethnicity.
- dahfizz 4y ago
- ChrisKnott 4y agoWe were never Chinese...? We literally lost the rights of EU citizens, for example to retire in Tuscany.
- tomwojcik 4y agoLast I checked UK wasn't located in Asia or Africa.
- pjc50 4y agoFunny thing is that the Commonwealth used to convey a kind of free movement; and prior to that Empire citizens had the right to migrate to the UK. This was ended when people started actually using it in large numbers.
- marginalia_nu 4y agoThey've held India, Hong Kong, Egypt, South Africa, etc.
- gnomewascool 4y agoI assume that you're objecting to the use of the word "right" as opposed to, say, "privilege"? The EU itself phrases freedom of movement as a "right"[0]. Arguably, every human should have the right to move to any country they want to, and in an ideal world every human would have that right. That is obviously not the case now, but the rolling back of the partial progress that had been made, and the consequent creation of a boundary between the UK and the remainder of the EU that hadn't existed previously, is rightly condemned. [0] https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/pages/glossary/right-free-movement_en https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/pages/glossary/right-free-...
- dahfizz 4y agoYes, thank you. You've phrased it more elegantly than myself. Freedom of movement is a human right. The right to be European is not a human right. The overuse and dilution of the term "right" to mean "anything I want to, or am allowed, to do" is a serious pet peeve of mine...
- urgentmsg1 4y ago
- flir 4y agoYou missed out "working" and "living".
- urgentmsg1 4y ago
- urgentmsg1 4y ago
- flir 4y agoIs this a parody?
- ben_w 4y agoWhen the UK was still a member of the EU, it explicitly negotiated that the EU rules denied access to the EU for non-EU citizens. It then negotiated its own exit from the EU, and decided that it didn't even want to ask for an exception. Ergo, the UK government is definitely to blame. While others may also take the blame in hypotheticals that never happened, if the UK had not done what it chose to do, then this wouldn't be the state we are in now.
- Veen 4y ago1) Hundreds of thousands of British citizens live and work in the EU. 2) The EU is not Europe. Leaving the EU did not stop British citizens from being European.
- ginko 4y ago>The EU is not Europe I'm starting to understand how Americans get annoyed when people keep going "but the USA is not America"
- ben_w 4y ago1) as one of those people, I moved while it was still a right, and am only allowed to stay because it's a grandfathered-in right for people like me. The right — as in, you don't need to ask for permission — no longer exists for single citizenship Brits. 2) Do you also insist on calling Venezuelans "American"? Because that's also technically accurate, in a way most people consider hair-splitting.
- Veen 4y ago> 2) Do you also insist on calling Venezuelans "American"? Because that's also technically accurate, in a way most people consider hair-splitting. I find the distinction worth making because I refuse to let pro-EU people co-opt the European identity for their own purposes. I am British and European. Whether Britain is in the EU is irrelevant.
- PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
- rvz 4y ago
- flir 4y agoCongratulations, you are technically correct, and we all know how important that is in getting to the heart of an issue.
- woodruffw 4y agoIt’s pretty clear the GP meant the rights conferred to them by EU citizenship.
- sweezyjeezy 4y agoIn the UK, 'EU' and 'Europe' are synonymous in some conversational contexts. The phrase "UK and Europe" is sometimes used now.
- Veen 4y agoThat’s only true in conversational contexts where the speaker wants to obfuscate the difference between the EU and Europe. That’s a political development, not a linguistic one.
- sweezyjeezy 4y agoI've heard it in a business context in the last month so I'm going to have to disagree with you there.
- lrem 4y agoNah, thy UK wasn't banished, just decided to leave. If the people will it, it has the right to reapply and queue orderly behind Macedonia and Ukraine.
- smcl 4y agoAccession to the EU isn't dependent on other countries' applications. If Iceland, Norway, the UK, Switzerland or Liechtenstein decided one day they suddenly wanted to be in the EU, they wouldn't go in a queue behind the other applications - they'd rightly be assessed as "Generally aligned" with the all parts of the EU acquis and the process would be relatively quick, all things considered. Of course they won't reapply any time soon, but that's nothing to do with Ukraine, Macedonia, Turkey, Bosnia, Serbia and all the other countries who are at various staged of the application process.
- ben_w 4y agoI don't think it's an ordered queue? Not that it really matters, I think it would be unwise to readmit the UK unless EU membership becomes overwhelmingly popular, and I don't think that's going to take less than 15 years.
- PaulDavisThe1st 4y agoI agree with this, but what I find scary is the prospect that if the gap is too long, you will see the emergence of another generation that is as parochial and anti-Europe as the one I grew up in. The political leaders that took the UK into the EEC in the 1970s did so in the face of a great deal of public opposition. If I try to be optimistic, perhaps cheap holidays in the sun will keep another generation feeling as connected to Europe as those in the 17-40 range currently seem to be. But I'm not an optimist by nature.
- Stevvo 4y agoThe UK will not survive this. The government's next order of business is to tear up the Northern Ireland Protocol. This unilateral breach of the Withdrawal Agreement reverts the UK to 'no-deal' status. i.e. massive economic pain when we have just gone into a downturn. This will be the straw that breaks Scotland away to return closer to the EU, and maybe even Northern Ireland too. Welcome to the not-so-united Kingdom of England and Wales. The Queen will die along with her Kingdom as a symbolic cherry on the cake.
- Veen 4y agoIf that happens, it will be interesting to see which of the UK’s constituent nations thrives on its own. My money is on England. The Scots will quickly find they can’t fund their current level of public expenditure without English taxpayer’s money.
- Stevvo 4y agoScotland would probably adopt the Euro as an independent nation, the EU paying much of that public spending but also tempering it.