Unintended Consequences

[ZigZagJigsaw]

A colleague who voted for Brexit has just been informed she has no right to emigrate to the Netherlands with her family. The reason she wants to move there is because she says NL have a better healthcare system than the U.K. Her youngest child (teenager) is highly dependent on the NHS and apparently that would disqualify them, unless they agreed to not use the public health care system.

The above would apply even if the NL classed my colleague and her husband as highly skilled, which they don’t. British nationals are now classed as third country nationals so they have to relocate as highly skilled immigrants. No more free movement after Brexit.

She’s trying to be exactly the same kind of economic migrant to the NL that she voted to keep out of the U.K. And for some reason doesn’t seem to see the link.

I’m just nodding politely at work but I had to come and vent somewhere.

AIBU to think “you brought this on yourself”?

to be fair - and i have long said that leave were way way too vague and should have been pressed on all the points.

But. Becoming non-EU country meant that the non-EU rules would be applied to travel etc. So if anyone had bothered to look, they could have seen what - worst-case, hard brexit - would have meant in terms of visas, length of stay, ownership of property, etc.

I could have lived with a soft-Brexit tbh. But. It is what it is.

Not everyone can read between the lines. The referendum was a right mess.

They discriminated bc of a disability??

Does the U.K. do this?

they didn't discriminate because of the disability as such. They discriminated on the basis that the family would immediately be taking out of the system without ever having paid in.

No country in the world would disagree with that.

Yanbu. My mum is aghast at the prospect of visas for Europe, that she can't use the EU queues at the airport etc. She seems to think it should be total freedom of movement for us but not for others.

They want immigrants who bring value and won’t be a “burden on the state”. My uncle lives in Australia and has lived there for years but a number of years in was diagnosed with ME. He’s been able to access support to supplement his income which enabled him to work part time and manage his symptoms.

Yes, the UK does this. We try really hard to prevent "health tourism" and will refuse immigration to people unlikely to be able to pay in more than they take out. It's part of the screening process.

It's a shame but she's in the Find Out stage of F around and Find Out!

I'm not flabbergasted in the least. I regularly listen to stupid people expounding their ill informed political views with no real concept of their outcome.
The Brexit eejits who voted without informing themselves of the consequences, deserve all they get. It's just a pity that the enlightened were dragged down with them!

Not in my experience. As a GP we have many new patients who have moved here from European countries and have multiple medical problems. Their first appointment consists of them asking for referral to several hospital specialists for their ongoing conditions. Just last week the elderly parents of a Slovakian patient moved here, and have had 6 outpatient referrals between them.

OP it seems unfair that your colleague can’t move to an EU country, when people from EU countries move here all the time.

Free movement won't last within the EU for much longer anyway.

Fimofriend
Before Brexit there was a lack of teachers, doctors, and nurses. After Brexit, the UK has lost even more employees from those three groups

NHS England employs around 1.3 million full-time equivalent (FTE) staff, data from February 2024 shows, including 140,653 doctors and 353,969 nurses and health visitors.
That’s the highest number of FTE doctors, nurses and health visitors since comparable figures began in 2009.

"Just last week the elderly parents of a Slovakian patient moved here, and have had 6 outpatient referrals between them.
OP it seems unfair that your colleague can’t move to an EU country, when people from EU countries move here all the time." If I go to the GP or the hospital in Belgium the first thing I am asked for is my ID card to show I am eligible for (free) treatment. The UK seems to have discovered no way of managing this. It doesn't mean that EU countries are wrong because they do. Treatment is not free, it is covered by my social security payments, annual fee to a mutuelle and hospitalisation etc cover paid by my employer.

Not true. I understood fully that the UK is a country of limited resources getting poorer every day with no capacity to endlessly allow immigrants who can’t be net contributors. (think our population has grown by 10m in the last 10 years or so?).

I also understood that we would have passport controls and restrictions on time in Europe. I think political independence is more important than mine or anyone’s time showing a passport (which we always had to do because we were never part of Schengen).

I do admit that I did not expect such a shambolic implementation of Brexit and lack of hard negotiation. But again that was scuppered by anti/Brexiteers who didn’t respect the electorate and hampered any meaningful negotiations by their disgraceful behaviour and tactical voting in Parliament. Despite this sabotage they and every other remoaner likes to complain Brexit is a disaster. I don’t think it is, but if it is then it was caused by Remoaners not allowing effective hard balled negotiations with EU, an organisation of 26 countries who were more aligned than the UK and 650 MPs. It the MPs who shouldn’t be allowed to vote.

Look what Trump has done in little more than 100 days. Ursula said yesterday she wanted a tariff free trade deal with the US, but stuffed the UK a neighbour out of spite.

You (as doesn’t any singular person) don’t represent the entire UK electorate in your opinion of immigration. The implementation of Brexit was applied as shambolically as its referendum. Whichever way you look at it, it’s failed.

"Not everyone who voted for Brexit is a racist, but every racist voted for Brexit".

She tested the system and it rejected her just as she wanted it to. That’s what she voted for.

Ah, that was one of the problems - all the lovely remain voters said they welcomed freedom of movement with Turkey. Poor strategy.

As someone who voted to leave the EU I also would be amused by your colleague and would have to point out that her circumstance was indeed something that we voted for.

yanbu. The Brexit voters are always crosser about the realities of their actions

I’m wondering just how many people now have dual nationality having researched family history.

The numbers applying to the Italian consulate for example are so large it is virtually impossible to get an interview to complete the application.

Be an interesting question to add to the next census.

I'm not knowingly friends with anyone who voted Brexit. If that was my colleague I'd take great pleasure in reminding her she voted for it

He got bitten by an ostrich at a safari park

It's all too depressing for words.

Honestly, populism is such an old, well-trodden route. You'd think we'd have learned our lesson. But no. And Reform UK are still alive and well. 🙄

Can you tell me please who would not allow her? The UK government? The Australian government?