I have a friend (in fact I have several .....) who feels that Brexit would be a disaster for him. Here a few words from a couple of his latest emails to me on the subject. I agree with some of his points but disagree in general, just posting to show the other side of the coin.
The FT article you sent is a very sensible one. There’s also a front-page headline “Expats quit Europe” in today’s Times.
I did some preliminary work on my own Plan B while in SA. There’s a good chance I could get a private health insurance cover there despite my pre-existing cancer condition, and although it would be seriously expensive the cost would be offset by having to pay no tax on my pension there, as long as the existing rule remains in force, and of course by the low general cost of living.
Not that I’m panicking, but there has to be a Plan B. Many pro-Brexit commentators say “Oh, don’t worry, something will be done” without having the slightest idea what could or might be done. And my experience as an ex-CEO suggests that you don’t trust people who say “Oh don’t worry, something will be done” !!!
I started chatting to the British woman next to me who said she was a "passionate" Brexiteer and would put up with any amount of inconvenience to "stick two fingers up to Schengen". I smiled and asked her to keep her distance from me, as Brexit would probably kill my life in France and I might start a fight with her, and she said yes, her brother lives in France and thinks the same way.
I asked her why she was so passionate about Brexit, and she trotted out all the usual stuff about immigration and bureaucracy, to which I said yes, but if you're so passionate about it, tell me how your own life is going to change for the better once we're out. More platitudes, and I pressed the question as to how EU membership had impacted her own life negatively, to the extent that she was prepared to sacrifice her brother's existence in France in order to overcome the problems EU membership was causing her. She went quiet.
Then on the plane, it turned out that she was sitting directly in front of me ! So I jokingly asked the stewardess if she could be moved, as I have a Brexit allergy and if the woman talked about Bexit I might end up vomiting, to the inconvenience of other passengers !
Another British lady, sitting next to me, asked why I was so firmly against Brexit, and I said that the trouble with going backwards is that you leave behind the people and companies who have gone forward and can't go into reverse. She asked about my situation, and I said it was all about medical care (not quite true - my partner's residence status depends on being the spouse of a European citizen, which I would no longer be). I said I would have to think of moving to SA, and she said why not back to Britain ? And I said firstly because I wouldn't want to live with people who had voted to mess up my life, but also because of the poor quality of NHS care. Whereupon it turned out that she was a GP in the UK ! However, by the end of the flight I had told her the horror stories of my friend who died while (major UK city) General Hospital held meetings to decide which of their departments should be responsible for his treatment, and then lost his file for 3 weeks, and another who was left in such squalor in (another major UK city) General Hospital that his wife finally had to take bedsheets with her and change his bedding herself. When I compared this with the total professionalism of my French cancer care, the total lack of bureaucracy, and the personal warmth of the medical staff, she went quiet !
You know it makes sense.
