“We made the public a promise that this government would end free movement and we will,” said home secretary Priti Patel yesterday at the virtual Conservative party conference. Crack open the bubbly, set up the socially distanced street parties. We’ve finally taken back control. Rule Britannia, God Save The Queen, Land of Hope and Glory. Celebrate good times, come on!
To be fair, we shouldn’t thank or blame Patel for ending free movement. After all, we voted it for it in the fateful EU referendum. We would control our borders again and decide which foreigners could live and work in Britain. And not before time, what with those pesky non Brits stealing low paid jobs in the care sector and in the NHS. It was time to pull up the drawbridge to the world. Let’s look after our own.
Back in 2016, I found myself being ‘unfriended’ by some Facebook ‘friends’ because I had made the apparently a sweeping statement about how largely older leavers had basically dumped on their own children by voting to sweep away the freedoms they themselves enjoyed. I stand by that. The reality is well in view now as the leavers’ dream of stopping people having the right to live, love, work, study and retire in any of the EU 27 countries has come to fruition. That is precisely what they voted to do and no amount of hand-wringing and faux anger can change it. Mate – if you voted to end free movement, you can unfriend me if you like, but you know I was right. You obviously love your children as much as anyone loves their children. You just picked a funny way of showing it.
Patel, the daughter of Ugandan Asian migrants, walked through the same lobby to end free movement as chancellor Rishi Sunak, whose parents came from Kenya and Tanzania respectively, as well as the son of a Pakistani bus driver, former chancellor Sajid Javid. Free movement into the UK was apparently fine for Patel, Sunak and Javid’s family, and I don’t see them saying they should never have been allowed to come here in the first place, but free movement for today’s generation can’t apply. What absolute hypocrites. But it gets even worse.
The end of free movement won’t effect the illiberal elite. Hard Brexiters like Nigel Farage can always find ways to avoid the taking back control they so desire. The Brexit Party owner obtained German passport for his sons so they could still enjoy free movement. The MP for the 19th century Jacob Rees Mogg has, presumably entirely legally, squirrelled his money away in the Republic of Ireland. Former chancellor and hard Brexiter Nigel Lawson bought himself French residency in order to continue to enjoy his life of luxury abroad.
Friends – real friends, not Facebook friends – who live in EU countries who have already sorted their post Brexit residency arrangements reveal the stories of those who haven’t. They knew that ‘Boris’ would safeguard their right to stay abroad and carry on their lives in the sun because, after all, they weren’t migrants, like those Spanish nurses and Polish carers. They were expats which was somehow different and indeed put them on a higher level than mere migrants. I am reliably told that for many expats, the penny has only just dropped that the Brexit many of them, unbelievably, voted for is about to throw their plans into disarray. Now thousands of Brits abroad are scrabbling around at the last minute to get residency, trying to set up medical insurance as we leave the EU scheme and find out that some will have their bank accounts closed. Others are trying to ‘come home’ but are finding they can’t afford to. If it wasn’t so sad, it would be hilarious.
As we head for, at best, a wafer thin trade deal with the EU, we must accept that free movement really is all over, except for the super rich who can always buy whatever they want, including residency and citizenship. Having voluntarily voted to remove free movement from ourselves, it isn’t coming back anytime soon and whether we voted to cut ourselves off from Europe or not, that’s a fact of modern British life.
I suppose there is a silver lining in this dark cloud. When EU migration dries up, at least there will be alternative work for those displaced from our manufacturing base as companies take their business away from the UK or even go bust. Those no longer required in the automotive and aerospace sectors can always apply to carry out domiciliary work in the care sector. It’s gruelling minimum wage work but surely it’s a price worth paying to stop foreigners coming over and taking our jobs?
In truth, there is no point in me going off on one, reeling off sarcastic blogs, ridiculing our decision back in 2016 to take away our own rights and, more importantly, those our children could enjoy. That’s done, now, and we have to live with it. It still grates with me that I have to listen to the affluent daughter of Asian immigrants gloating over removing the rights of migrants but we can at least express our relief that the super rich, who told us we must end free movement, can still buy theirs. Johnson didn’t put that on his fucking bus, did he?
