Shock: House of Lords comes across as more reasonable than the government on EU citizens’ rights…We didn’t have it on our bingo card either.
For all its archaic elements the House of Lords, has been incredibly effective in scrutinising post-Brexit Britain.
This became abundantly clear after an influential House of Lords committee urged Home Secretary Suella Braverman to essentially get a grip on protecting the rights of vulnerable British citizens in the EU. If an unelected chamber of over 800 people, some of which literally pass the time snoozing and inherited a seat by birth can make this point, what does that say about Braverman and the cabinet?
It also said more needed to be done to ensure the rights of EU citizens in the UK – also guaranteed under the Brexit withdrawal agreement – were protected to prevent a Windrush-type scenario propagated by Theresa May’s exceptionally weak post-referendum cabinet. Considering the current government has steered right in almost every regard, especially migration policy which includes treating asylum seekers as pure criminals, since May’s comprehensive cock up. If The Commons and the Cabinet do not heed the Lord’s warning the future looks bleak for both sides of the British border.
Treating people with palpable disgust and demonising rhetoric has become the purview of Braverman and the vampiric Pritti Patel before her. When it comes to destitute dingies fleeing and risking their lives on the peripheries of the country, providing they have no UK passport, any contempt is qualified. It’s not just confined to asylum seekers or refugees though, The Home Secretary clearly doesn’t care about British people overseas either.
The most shocking example of this disregard was the case of, Kathleen Poole, a 74-year-old British woman with dementia who was threatened with deportation from Sweden.
She was unable to walk or talk and was threatened with deportation from Sweden because she did not have the completed paperwork to stay in her care home. So much for the Conservatives being the party of patriotism and looking after Britain. That tree logo of theirs is looking more rotten and hollow than ever before.
The committee also heard of a British family of four with two young children who were also threatened with removal from Sweden, and British children facing difficulties in Malta when they turned 18.
Stewart Wood, acting chair of the European Affairs committee, said: “As the passage of time since the UK’s exit from the EU grows, it is imperative that the rights of UK and EU citizens remain a top priority and continue to receive the highest political attention.”
The Lords have a history when it comes to the UK’s relationship with the EU whether it be pre or post-Brexit. For instance, rejecting Boris Johnson’s Internal Markets Bill which threatened to break international law. Such qualms and reservations of government policy doubtless helped prevent Rees Mogg et al- ironically Brexit Opportunities Minster until even he caught on that such a ridiculous position bore no fruit – from railroading an unregulated, clean break from the union, otherwise known as a hard Brexit.
An institution that is nominally detached from normal people, a little hint of this is implied by the name Lords, is ironically doing a better job of sticking up for British people home and abroad.