British PM May defends Brexit rights offer in face of EU doubts

Last year, Brexit was largely presented as a referendum on immigration, with politicians (who promptly ran from the scene after their surprise win) playing on the strange tribal/prejudiced instinct in human nature. It's frustrating that this instinct can be so strong in people - especially people who are down and out - that they don't look past it, and end up voting against their own interests. Obviously this isn't happening just in Britain. The growing divide between people who vote based on this instinct and people who look beyond it frightens me.

May's going to have a rough ride against Merkel/Macron led EU. They are Europe's new power couple and I actually think they are now pleased that the old Ger-Fr-UK triumvirate's been broken. Merkel's "we/Europe can no longer rely on the us and the UK" was highly symbolic and it's clear Macron's not as anglophile as many initially thought.

Everything is/will be much, much simpler without the UK.

EU citizens in the UK, who are excercising their treaty rights, can get ILR after five years now - I don't see how this offer is different. They need to sort out the deliberately confusing and impossible 85 page application form to get this permanent status. In fact, all UK immigration application forms and procedures are deliberately unnecessarily complicated and obtuse.

If nationals from EU member states choose to set up home and work in the UK at the end of the process of article 50 exit negotiation, guarantees to be enshrined into law for up to 3 million so called EU expatriates will be afforded equal rights as any other British national.

That is the offer, subject to studying the legal texts contained within the small print to be presented to Parliament for scrutiny on Monday. This offer, will also be subject to acceptance of reciprocal rights for UK expatriates settling in other member states.

Whether this offer is acceptable or not is a matter for both teams of negotiators lead by David Davies (UK) and Michel Barnier (EU-27).

Why Theresa May saw fit to make this offer, in a manner taken by many as obtuse at this Brussels summit did not allay the fears of the EU commission, or any other member state leadership, let alone the 3 million plus EU expatriates the offer is intended to pacify. In fact personally I think this proves beyond any reasonable doubt there needs to be a return to the polls for another election, the sooner the better.

A simple local registration process and presentation of supporting documents, proof of identity etc should be sufficient enough.