Monday, 11 July 2016

No wonder he was cross

Dear Val,
I was listening as usual to Radio 4 Today programme on Saturday Morning. Mr Andy Burnham (shadow minister of something or other) was interviewed and left me enraged for the rest of the day. For the first time in my life I wrote to and MP. Here is my letter.

Dear Mr Burnham,

I heard you interviewed on this morning's BBC4 Today programme.
You clearly put the interests of Europeans living in UK ahead of the interests of Britons living in Europe.
You want to give security to stay to Europeans in UK. 
You clearly stated that you had little concern for the interests of Britons "who have chosen to leave the country".
Please think again about this matter.
Many Europeans (and other foreigners) in UK send money home. It adds up to a lot.
Many Britons in Europe send money home, though some like me have now retired. I worked overseas for over 40 years and sent everything I could remit back to UK, as many others have done and still do.
I hope you will put the interest of Britons in Europe at least on a par with the Europeans in UK.
The interests of Britons in Europe are very seriously prejudiced by Brexit and they should have a reasonable expectation that the UK government will take steps to protect their interests.
But more importantly, the obligation of the UK government is to look after the interests of the UK and its citizens, not to be more concerned for foreigners, even if European (after Brexit, they will be foreigners).

Robin Johnston

I got a standard automatic reply saying MPs can deal only with matters raised by their own constituents. Now I am three times disenfranchised:
1.       No vote; been away from UK more than 15 years
2.       Scottish, who want to stay in Europe
3.       No MP to write to
One gets the feeling of being abandoned by one's country so I think the obvious solution is to look for another.
Does anyone know how to get up a petition of Britons living in Europe to have our rights protected