The freedom to move all across Europe is a modern human right on a continent awash with needless bloodshed, spilled over the centuries since the fall of the Roman Empire. It is one of the greatest political achievements in recorded history. My own citizenship of Europe is something I value above all other official recognitions which bind me to where I live and who I am. I am far from convinced that once acquired it can be taken away without cause, but I have to face that this is one of the facts of Brexit.
The Home Secretary, not one of my favourites, is triumphalist in her support of the legislation now before parliament which introduces the new muddle headed immigration system. Yet already there is an emergency to get in the fruit and vegetable harvest due to a shortage of gatherers. This kind of problem will become common all across the piece, once the hard Brexit we are embarked upon takes effect, as one issue after another, that the narrow minded nationalism of the Brexit junkies never thought of, pops up to derail industrial, commercial, cultural and leisure activities at every level.
The missteps of the pandemic emergency which have cost hundreds, even thousands, of lives are but a foretaste of what is ahead as the economy, not the pandemic, begins to dominate the daily life of the nation. It is therefore critical that the takeover of the Tory party’s central direction by an incompetent cohort of nationalist politicians and their fanatical advisers, be reversed. And sooner rather than later.