to think ending Freedom of Movement on Oct 31st is a disaster waiting to happen

[chomalungma]

There are several million settled EU citizens who haven't applied for settled status yet.

What happens to companies who want to recruit foreigners after Oct 31st? What bureaucracy has been set up?

It's a disaster waiting to happen. Will we have people who live here refused entry? Only given a few months on an entry visa?

I hate the country we have become.

The whole exit will be a disaster.
Many families have left and those who stayed feel very unwelcome I'd imagine.
The bigger concern is food and medicine.
Other than the big statement changing the passport colour it doesn't seem like there I'd much is place to cushion the disaster.
I'm bracing myself in Ireland as I've no doubt we'll end up down the river too.

Everything about Brexit is a disaster. All I ever hear Brexiteers saying is vague slogans about taking back control, taking advantage of wonderful opportunities, we coped in the war, etc etc. No details.

I wish we could go back to May 2016 but with everybody aware of what's happened in the last three years. I don't think Leave would win again.

I hate what it is doing to this country.

The entire settlement scheme is a disaster waiting to happen, just look at Windrush. My DH has no legal documentation to prove his settled status. It's all held on a home office 'system" somewhere. What happens when that system goes down or there is a computer error or in 30 years someone at the home office decides we don't need that server anymore and deletes the lot!?

From a distance the talk of finally investing in areas who were left behind, making Britain great again.
How can people not realise the EU wasn't stopping or holding towns back, that ties back to Thatchers rein.
I cab see why people were upset with immigration it is the same here, hospital's full, not enough housing, everything has doubled in price.
I wish all governments could have dealt with it rather than get people so angry they felt Brexit was the only option to regain control over free travel within the EU.
Planned for the increase of people.

Spoke to my dad just today about it who has the old settled status, in his words "I'm not doing anything until I have to, they already know I've been here 30 years."
I think there's a lot of misstrust of the home office and not wanting to be on a 'register'.
I'm applying as unlike dad I'm not in my forever home or job yet.
Also getting DS an Italian passport ASAP, if (highly unlikely) I get chucked out I'm taking him with me!
I have a job, I'm not a criminal (I had security screening for work ffs) there's no reason that I wouldn't get settled status and yet I have a bit of a panicky feeling about it. The hostile environment is working!

I am a historian of the 19th/20th century and it's incredible to see how the rhetoric of the early 1900s, which brought to the institution of the Aliens Act 1905, the first legislation in this country to control immigration, is similar to the one used today. People's lives threatened by a sudden economic change, increases in prices, and a general worsening of living conditions, and blaming the newcomer for a much broader state of affairs.

Camomila - sorry to hear, it's a truly horrible thing, this 'register'. I dislike what this country, historically the beacon of tolerance, has become.

Like everything Brexit, it's a disaster waiting to happen. And anyone who wants to say project fear, a PP has given a perfect example (Windrush) of how this particular issue is going to be disastrous

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g there have been surveys done that says leave would still win. So make of that what you will.

It will be a bit of a disaster to start with and we will all just have to get on with it and try and come together. I'm a remainer but I also am a realist. Brexit is going to happen. If you think another referendum or peoples vote will happen it's just fantasy. We now need to prepare as best we can and get on with it.

"I have a job, I'm not a criminal (I had security screening for work ffs) there's no reason that I wouldn't get settled status and yet I have a bit of a panicky feeling about it. The hostile environment is working!"
Fuck this shit.

Thanks DarkNoise DS is mixed-race so I'd have worries about about Matteo Salvini's Italy too.

I don't know what normal people like us can do about the far right nationalism and populism that seems to be gaining momentum everywhere.

@Trafalger The people that are suddenly told they're not welcome here, to go home despite living here for years, how do you suggest they get on with it?

nobaggy they need to apply for settled status. It makes me very sad but that's all they can do. Nothing we say or do is going to change the path we are on now. The people who voted to leave and the idiots we have running the show have made this happen. We need to try and make the best of it and protect ourselves as much as can.

It will be fine. Boris has a contingency plan, it’s a secret plan that’s why we haven’t heard anything about it yet. Neither has Gove et al.

As we speak, small flotillas of boats are amassing in the harbours of Southampton, Portsmouth, Felixstowe and Orford Ness. On 30th October they will cross into The Netherlands, Belgium and France bringing back hundreds of thousands of UK citizens living in the EU. They will be retrained to work in healthcare, retail, logistics and the hotel sector. We must all pull our weight now.

Meanwhile those EU nationals living here will be allowed free passage back to the EU, so long as they leave before the swallows emigrate.

Spitfires will be flown above....yak yak yak

I don't think anyone who is resident in the UK at the date of Brexit will realistically be kicked out. Additional paperwork to secure the residence status might be annoying, but not life-changing.

It is obvious that Brexit was an appalling idea from the start. Give the poor "Brexiteers" a chance to retract their idiocy and hold a referendum.

DarkNoise I am most familiar with the 16th century and back then there were complaints about aliens taking jobs from Englishmen and occasional flashpoint rioting when it was reported that foreigners left cities such as London because they were in fear.

It is very sad and frustrating to see this repeating cycle of blaming immigration for complex economic and social issues that are not going to be resolved by restricting freedom of movement.

I don't think anyone who is resident in the UK at the date of Brexit will realistically be kicked out

Not on purpose anyway. There’s plenty of room for it to happen by complete cock up. Not least because it isn’t going to be easy to work out who was ordinarily resident and who wasn’t.

Well Priti Patel is just speaking to the rabid Brexiteers. In order to outwit the Brexit Party. And give a metaphorical kick to the EU also.

Obvious to me, but it is just so xenophobic it is laughable.

There was a slot on Eddie Mair on LBC earlier with an immigration lawyer about this, and to say that EU people are worried is an underestimation. What the actual fk is going on here?

This is despicable really.

Not least because it isn’t going to be easy to work out who was ordinarily resident and who wasn’t.
This is true. I don't know why they bothered with this settled status at all, and not a simple test as just being registered for a NIN by a particular cut-off date.

Ending freedom of movement will affect us, but other things will have far more immediate and very bad impacts.

I’m sure they’ll all be up in arms when the EU restricts British citizens living in EU countries in exactly the same way, which is pretty inevitable!

Just ban anyone going to Europe who has a criminal record.

Tit for tat can have some massive unintentioned effects.

@Trafalger I won't give up until (if) it's done. I will not go quietly into the night. I want to be able to look at my Grand daughter and say, I tried, I really tried. Not in my name, never in my name.