Could this be the start of a nasty period in Britain as Brexit starts to hit?

We haven't left yet, roses.

I don't know why the government doesn't take you on as an advisor roses. You seem to know everything about the future.

That's a formality now Djen and I don't think you can cling to the hope that we are not leaving.

Personal comments don't help debate DD

Well the Lords have passed an amendment to give EU nationals the right to stay here (and not be used as bargaining chips).
So time to write to your MPs and express your views. Use WritetoThem.com
Would not be a bit surprised to see this backed in Commons as so many MPs have constituents with EU spouses or industries that rely on EU labour.

"Well the Lords have passed an amendment to give EU nationals the right to stay here (and not be used as bargaining chips)."

As I said in my post earlier:

" As for the House of Lords Ammendment tonight I will remind people the longer the delay in triggering Article 50 , the length of time the 'ping pong' goes on between the House Of Lords and Parliament, the longer the anguish goes on for EU Nationals here and also our UK Nationals living abroad in the EU Nations."

If the matter of 'Reciprocal Rights' cannot begin to be determined due to 'process' and the EU will only begin negotiations after Article 50 is triggered then I remain of the opinion the Lords have actually made the problem worse for those citizens abiding in other nations the '28' Nations that make up the EU by lengthening the period before Article 50 is triggered, 'possibly'.

Guy Verhofstadt ' cannot ' make any decisions unilaterally so whilst his latter comments are welcomed they do not amount to much ' at present'. Hopefully the European Commission/Parliament may be totally behind him but even so until Article 50 is triggered, or the EU Parliament vote on his proposal without requiring Article 50 to be triggered nothing can nor will be done.

Happy for the European Union Parliament to prove me wrong!

Their intentions are clear - the members of the groups doing the petitioning are very happy this evening - this is a matter of principle for us. All this the Govt are saying (Peter Bone on Newsnight) about 5 years residence means staying is an automatic right is not exactly how the HO is interpreting things - any excuse and they are refusing people however long they have resided.

I meant the intentions of the EU Parliament.

Why are some posters so happy to think well of EU intentions, but not so happy about our own Governments intentions? It doesn't make sense.
All EU immigrants here and British abroad could be relieved about the future if the EU had agreed with T May before Christmas to guarantee status.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/feb/27/rejections-eu-citizens-seeking-uk-residency

This just shows that the government couldn't care less about EU citizens here.
Why should their word be trusted?

That is simply your choice of words djen in fact it doesn't mean that at all.

Did you read the link, roses?
28% of EU citizens who have applied for residency have had it turned down.
Fact. Not my choice of words.
Can you explain it?

press.labour.org.uk/post/157862448279/jeremy-corbyn-works-with-european-socialist

Perhaps they didn't fill in their forms properly, or they haven't been here long enough to qualify, or they are not working , or, or etc. There will be good reasons.

Over a quarter of them? Really?
You obviously don't care about the fact that over 50% of EU doctors are thinking about leaving the NHS and going to mainland Europe because they do not feel welcome here, either.

Why is everyone so exercised about the fate of EU nationals in the U.K.? What about your own countrymen and women who have built their lives abroad? They currently live in uncertainty too. The EU flatly refused to settle the question of migrants both here and abroad until talks begin even though they were asked to put people before politics. So we apparently have to be magnanimous and give guarantees which we HOPE will be reciprocated. What if they're not? What then? Our people get kicked out whilst EU citizens carry on with THEIR lives here as normal. Who actually are the so called bargaining chips here?

I have two daughters in law, both of whom are EU nationals. I also have UK relatives living in EU countries. None of them are at all concerned that their situations will change. The only ones with any worries are my daughters in law.
It's the UK that is changing, the UK that is leaving the EU - nothing else changes in any other country because of the UK decision.

It would seem you are a bit too close to the problem Durhamjen to be objective. But if you take yourself and your family out of the equation and look at the thing as a whole you will perhaps get a different perspective. My cousin, married to a Spaniard, living in Malaga for the last 40 years isn't too keen to have to uproot and come home either. But it is what it is, and until the EU deign to begin talks, I see no advantage for us to roll over and hand out guarantees to all and sundry when currently there is nothing on the table.

Maybe I am too close to the problem Hollycat I am a UK national living in the EU!!!

We are not worried about our treatment in France - unless of course Le Pen gets elected - the people are very supportive and the great majority of 'Foncionaires' . We are worried about what the BRITISH GOVT will do to us in the way of our tax paid in UK and pensions. Also about our Healthcare which we paid for all our working lives.

It was British people living in the EU who lobbied the Peers yesterday ! Our groups have been working for months on this and Nicholas kept us informed about the Newsnight interview last night where Peter Bone showed himself to be the uninformed man he is! The people who are applying for citizenship have lived in UK for many many years not just the minimum 5. They have worked and some are receiving pensions they paid for. Britain is proving to be good at changing the rules and telling no one till they fall foul of these new regulations and then writing refusal and go home letters. The MPs are often proving less than sympathetic let alone helpful to people living in their constituencies despite what Bone said last night.
This morning there are more people than ever talking of leaving the UK - as many of them have been looking for work elsewhere they have discovered that many other places are paying higher wages than the UK. I wish them luck if they do leave and the hope they find a more friendly place to live.

I signed the petition to allow the student to stay. I also signed another to allow a 93 year old South African lady to stay here with her family as she's in poor health and has no family in SA. Also the Iranian lady imprisoned in Iran after visiting family there. She is married to a British man and lived here for years.

I also voted for Brexit and yes it was to partly to put a stop to uncontrolled immigration from unstable areas of the world. I sympathise with genuine refugees but we just cannot have an open door. Eu citizens do a use ful job and I'm happy for them to stay. They're probably more useful to us than our pensioners are to the Spanish!
I mainly voted Brexit though because I'm sick of our laws and way of life being overseen and dictated by an overblown and extremely expensive parliament in another country. I like being friendly with other countries, any other countries but first and foremost I'm British and I want to live in Britain with our own laws and culture.
Whether that is what Brexit will deliver is another matter!

Hollycat - Baroness this morning on Today programme was very emphatic that it is in everyone's interests - both EU nationals here and UK in Europe, to resolve this before the negotiations start. Because once they start everything remains un-resolved until the end of the negotiations. And even then - there could be chaos and limbo for all.
If we don't do this it will be in the pot for who knows how long.
She also made the point that if the UK does the principled thing and gives a promise now, then we are much more likely to end up in a mess.
My dentist is from Spain and his young family are settled here. Look around you - and unless you live in a very remote corner of the UK you probably know someone doing a vital job, or married to a UK national, that you would want to reassure.
And of course it would be a disaster for the NHS, the care sector and many businesses if there was an exodus of EU Labour. It's already begun. (Back to trying to get doctors and nurses from countries that can ill afford to lose them? Always an option.)
Hannah... I'm mystified unstable areas of the world ?? Are you talking about refugees?

Jess M Am I talking about refugees? Not genuine ones, but even then we can't take unlimited numbers. Already we're bursting at the seams and can't take care of our own citizens.
Old saying, you can't get a quart into a pint pot.

How was voting Leave going to help? We currently have an agreement with the French government to keep them in France. But when the agreement was made they saw us as allies.
Unless you are talking about the ones who are smuggled across the channel in lorries. So how was Brexit going to change that?
And I don't see bursting at the seams myself. I see a country that needs immigrants from the EU and further afield to keep vital services going and help the economy in many ways.
The London area is struggling with housing - but that is not because lots of unnecessary immigrants are filling it up.

I'm a bit confused here HannahLoisLuke. When you wrote about people from unstable areas of the world, whom did you mean? Most of the EU is quite stable, so if you meant people from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, we already have control over immigration and always have had.

As this is a thread about immigration, I'll stick to the topic rather than going into the financial value of the EU.

There's also people smuggling by boat along the East Coast JessM, but apparently we can't increase the strength of Border Control due to 'austerity'. [Hmm]