It’s amazing that, in weeks of discussion of Brexit, no one, in any paper or media comment that I’ve read, seems to have mentioned the citizenship issue, which matters most for individuals.
At present UK citizens have the right (not a concession, a right) to travel, live, work, study and – for certain categories of election – vote, within an area of more than 1.7 million square miles. Brexit would reduce that to 94,000, an astonishing cut of more than 94%.
Even if we don’t value those rights for ourselves, are we morally entitled to vote them away from those (UK citizens, not foreign residents) who do? What sort of precedent for voting away minorities’ rights would it set? Why should we expect that the victims won’t take their revenge when they have an opportunity to cut other rights, that we value but they don’t, by 94%?
Christopher Currie
London
• Labour MP Wes Streeting and Stuart Rose both argued at the Commons Treasury select committee that post-Brexit wages would rise (Cameron hopes for in-vote boost from Hollande on borders, 3 March). Wages are a consequence not just of the supply of labour, as both naively supposed, but also of demand and institutional constraints. Post-Brexit, reduced foreign investment and export restrictions would cut the supply of jobs.
Additionally, as Polly Toynbee has pointed out (Opinion, 23 February), Priti Patel – the employment minister and a leading Brexit advocate – has castigated British workers as “the worst idlers in the world”. This attitude would dominate a Post-Brexit government, ensuring a reduction in employees’ rights. Combined with fewer jobs, such politics would inevitably result in lower wages and diminished working conditions.
Professor Brendan McSweeney
Royal Holloway, University of London
• Who is speaking for the working class on the EU issue? Not, it seems, most of the Labour party, although there are some honourable exceptions. And why are the trade unions so quiet? It is as plain as the nose on your face that unrestricted immigration from the rest of the EU: a) holds down wages; b) denies some jobs to British workers; and c) limits our ability to accept refugees in genuine peril from the rest of the world.
Obviously, these are powerful reasons for leaving the EU. Where is genuine leftwing thinking when we need it?
Dermot Glynn
London
• You are right that “rarely has a UK election been of greater interest to Ireland” (Ireland gets nervous at prospect of ‘Brexit’ as election nears, theguardian.com, 5 March), but perhaps not for the reasons given. I hold an Irish passport and should therefore declare an interest, but there are more important issues than my ability to travel freely within the EU. The dangers to the Irish economy, and that of Northern Ireland, are obvious, but three additional problems spring to mind.
How will border controls work? Last week I entered and left the UK three times without once being asked for identification or a passport. On each occasion I was travelling between the Irish republic and Northern Ireland. Are Brexit supporters proposing to seal this land border with the EU, and if so, how?
David Cameron has said that EU citizens resident in the UK will not be allowed to vote in the upcoming referendum. Irish citizens resident in Britain will, however, be able to. How is this justifiable under European law?
Our prime minister has made much of the deal reached which will restrict in-work benefits for EU citizens. Will these restrictions apply to Irish citizens living in Britain? If not, surely this will be open to challenge from other citizens of other EU countries on grounds of discrimination?
It looks like Ireland’s British problem is likely to continue for some time yet.
Declan O’Neill
Oldham
• I am one of about 300,000 British people living in France; there is an equivalent number of French people living in Britain. Of those French people, the vast majority live and work in or around London. Of the 300,000 Brits in France, although there are a great many living and working in Paris, there are also tens of thousands living in pockets of countryside, from Brittany to the Dordogne and beyond, enjoying their retirement in a country that has a warm climate and a world-renowned healthcare system. Spain, Portugal and Greece have also welcomed thousands of retired British people, thanks to the EU.
Retired people generally need more healthcare and pay less in taxes, and are therefore a much greater financial strain on society than any worker ever will be – particularly if they have never worked in the country where they are living, and have therefore never paid into that society. To complain about EU workers claiming benefits in Britain while thousands of Brits enjoy retirement in EU countries is utter hypocrisy – as is, unfortunately, much of the debate surrounding this whole EU debacle.
Eleanor Martindale
Saint-Laurent-Bretagne, France
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