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Brexit concerns still strong

We have owned a town house in northern France for 10 years and have never considered applying for residency let alone citizenship, as we have been happy to come and go frequently.

Brexit is a catastrophe – the greatest tragedy to befall the British Isles since the Viking invasions. I cannot imagine circumstances where this will be beneficial for the UK.
David Cameron must be tarred, feathered and excoriated by history for causing this for purely party political reasons, doubly so for being unable to articulate the myriad benefits of EU membership. Similarly Boris Johnson, firstly for the years he spent writing lies for The Daily Telegraph and latterly for all the misleading information he espoused during the campaign.

I can only hope that some form of European passport for disenfranchised Brits, will come to pass.
The British Brexit negotiating team appears to be unaware of the complexity of what has to be unravelled. I despair for the future of the UK.

William EDMEAD, by email

RE: A Brownlowe, Letters, May. To vaunt one’s intelligence, then follow on with a poorly thought out view about the motives of expatriates wishing to protect their health and livings standards, surely indicates a more modest intellectual capacity?

The start of the second paragraph seems to have been borrowed directly from the Daily Mail, whilst the conclusion is more than slightly out of touch with reality. A lot of people are looking at the bigger picture and do not like what they see.

Laurie BECKETT, Deux-Sèvres

Theresa May said that she wants the British electorate to give her the ‘strong mandate’ that the French gave to President Macron. She obviously did not realise that only roughly two thirds of the French voters actually submitted a valid vote, and again only roughly two thirds of that was for the President. Hardly a ‘strong mandate’.

There seems no doubt that the Conservatives will do better than that but bearing in mind that a recent poll showed that in the UK the majority of people now think that the ‘Leave’ result was wrong I suspect that the need for her to negotiate a ‘Good Brexit’ agreement is more vital than ever.

John SPINKS, Seine-Maritime

I agree partly with Pamela Lake (Letters, May) and like her, our application for French citizenship is in the pipeline but I do mind very much that Britain has been led down this path. It will be ordinary citizens that bear the brunt, those with money will find a way of making more.

Jim BUCK, Hérault

Thank you Connexion for all the coverage about British rights in France and Brexit.
We are four people who could not vote in the referendum. We have three companies in France and have been here since 1983.
Our lives have been turned upside down by the uncertainty.
Carole LE HEUP, Lot-et-Garonne

Why do so many people confuse Europe with the E.U.? There were two letters in the May edition which fell into this trap.

The Swiss are not members but you wouldn’t say that they weren’t European. The same goes for the U.K.

Bernard Juby, Maine-et-Loire

Like so many others, we are deeply concerned and worried about our future, which we have planned and saved so carefully for over many years. We finally bought a house in France three years ago and now my husband has retired we plan to move there permanently.

Our concerns are access to healthcare; pension security; the ability to work as we can now (I am self-employed); no ‘cut off’ date or ‘time served’ clause – we will be there before March 2019, but won’t have been there five years, so will we have to follow different rules after Brexit from people who have? Our children would like to join us later; will they be able to? And our parents?
We are proud Europeans. We don’t want to be forced to leave the EU against our will.

If there is any way of safeguarding our, and our children’s, future in the EU through an associate membership or whatever solution can be found, we would be so grateful. The UK government seems to be completely deaf to our plight.

T.H. Finistère

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