Free Movement of EU Citizens To Britain Will End in 2019 (standard.co.uk)

Free movement of EU citizens to Britain will end when the country leaves the EU in March 2019, Theresa May's spokesman said Monday, moving to contain a Cabinet row over immigration after Brexit. From a report: Downing Street (headquarters of the government of the United Kingdom) said on Monday it was "wrong" to suggest free movement would "continue as it is now" once Britain leaves the EU. It comes following days of confusion and rumours of infighting between Cabinet colleagues over the crucial issue of immigration after Brexit.

Comments

Re:Omitting of course...

[MightyMartian]

The entire point of the Common Market, and ultimately the EU was more than simply to have a trading bloc. It is to create extremely tight economic integration. There's a rather good reason for this, seeing as Europe had just gone through two cataclysmic general wars, and if you cast the net back a bit further, you have also have the Napoleonic Wars and major conflicts like the Franco-Prussian War. In other words, this is a region that was blown to bits multiple times over the last few centuries.

Tight economic integration inevitably means some degree of political union. Now we can debate how much is too much, but in general, even in those countries where EU resentment is highest, countries like Poland, Hungary and Greece, people still in general view the EU positively. The Greeks made clear through multiple elections over the last five or six years that even with intense austerity, they not only want to remain in the EU, but the Eurozone.

These claims that somehow Britain is the canary in the coalmine, that somehow there is going to be this exodus of nations from the EU, really are little more than a shallow attempt by Leavers to try to justify what just about everyone now knows to have been a stunningly idiotic referendum result.

Re: Muslims already won

[angel'o'sphere]

Most Muslims in the UK come from the Commonwealth.

With very little paper work they receive an UK resident permit, even citizenship and also a passport if they want.

The EU has absolutely nothing to do with the UK's perceived "Muslim problem".

Re:Omitting of course...

[AmiMoJo]

The wars were not the only reason for tight integration. If you want to have really free and fair trade between nations then they all need to be playing by the same rules. The same standards, the same rules everywhere so that products and services can flow freely and no-one gains an unfair advantage.

There is also the collective bargaining power that comes from being the second largest economy in the world. Outside of the EU, countries are already lining up to bully the UK into accepting their terms. Trump wants a quick deal because he knows we are weak and desperate, open to accepting US chlorinated chicken and hormone infused beef to lessen the pain of Brexit.

Brexit is making the EU stronger. Merkel and Macron are reforming it, renewing it. Cameron could have been with them, getting the changes he wanted, if he had participated and built support instead of presenting a list of demands backed up by a threat.

Re:Omitting of course...

[Anonymous Coward]

In the case of both Greenland and Iceland, both have done very well after leaving the EU.

Greenland is a frozen rock of fifty thousand souls that relies on Danish subsidies and selling fishing rights that it could never defend anyway.

Iceland never joined the EU, and is still negotiating to do so. It has, however, been a member of the European Free Trade Area since 1994. Whatever you think about it's economy, EU , or even EEC membership has not been a factor. It isn't even showing particular objections to it's current trade status as far as I know.

You can say they are nothing alike, but that is obviously false. The economies are different, obviously, but the reasons for their departure is the same.

One never departed, the other is a technicality of no great importance.

The EU has gone well beyond it's original trade capacity and went into full on social policy. Which is why other members of the EU have been pushing back very hard against policies the EU is imposing. Poland is probably the most vocal example, but not the only example.

Your factual deficiencies aside, I am not aware of either Iceland or Greenland raising any particular objections to any EU Social Policies.

My posts are not really to debate the metrics of each member, former member, but to argue against GP who gave a faulty piece of ad hominem against the UK for their decision to leave.

Then why include such untrue statements in them? You would be well advised to apologize for your mistaken assertions instead.

That leave vote as in the works for a very long time with a whole lot of the populace getting out.

Actually, it was under 75% turnout, and a bare majority. Without a negotiated plan. Disdain for that process is justified.

Further, the doom and gloom irrationality of GP is discounted completely by other members who _did_ leave and have not crashed and burned because of it.

But s.petry, there really are none. Greenland? Still sucking at Copenhagen's teat, Algeria? Yeah, an Islamic oil satrapy. Iceland? Never an EU member, still a member of the free trade zone.

You can have your own opinions. But not your own facts.

Re:EU is anti-democratic

[AmiMoJo]

Not sure whether to laugh out cry at this.

The EU has given us more power, more control and more sovereignty. Look at how strong consumer rights and employment rights are under it. Look at how the EU is able to tell the US to go fuck itself when it suits us.

Outside the EU, we have countries lining up to screw us. How is being forced to accept US farming standards, far inferior to our own, "taking back control" or increasing our sovereignty?

The EU is getting stronger. The far right and the populists have been exposed and rejected. Support for the EU is up, it's reforming itself and pushing ahead with the project now that the UK can't hold it back.