Most of us have had our say on the result of the general election, what caused it and what it means for the UK.
I offered leavers my olive branch, albeit a bit prickly, last week. It can be seen here.
No one posted a comment, though a few did when I mentioned the piece at Facebook and Twitter, but 51 people so far have ticked "like", for which many thanks.
As you would expect, I am appalled at the Tory victory and the certainty that we shall now see a wretched Brexit as negotiated, assuming a trade deal can be done, or a no deal version if the further talks collapse.
Britain loses economically either way, much more clearly if we crash out without a deal.
For now, let me just share one cartoon - the one you see above and by far the best I've seen; it's from Jens Hage in Denmark, who kindly consents to its reproduction here - and two tweets.
The tweets are from Guy Verhofstadt, a former Belgian PM and the European Parliament's Brexit coordinator.
They touch a personal nerve since my wife, French, applied to the Home Office nearly seven weeks ago for the insulting "settled status" and has yet to hear a word back.
I suppose they cannot be too careful with these dodgy foreigners.
After all, she only arrived in the UK 50 years ago, paid decades of PAYE and brought up two British - OK Anglo-French - daughters.
The EU member states should grant UK citizens living in Europe the full rights as they have today. Automatically. No ‘ifs and buts’ here either. Let's also come back to the idea of ‘European associated citizenship’ for UK citizens who want to keep their link with Europe.
— Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) December 18, 2019
The vote for Boris, in fact smaller than the vote for parties that wanted Remain or at least a new referendum, was in part inspired by xenophobia, that hatred or suspicion of foreigners that stretches without impediment from smug Tory shires to the Labour heartlands that will suffer most the consequences of leaving the EU.
I have received hundreds of letters of citizens panicking about their status. I want to make an appeal to PM Johnson: be generous in your victory. Grant to all EU citizens the full rights as they have today. Automatically. To all of them. No ‘ifs and buts’.
— Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) December 18, 2019
The late update is that the Home Office finally emailed approval of Joelle’s application a day after this article appeared. The delay was inexcusable and the system is still objectionable but am grateful.
I am not looking forward to opening my mouth and showing myself to be British, however careful I am with my French, when next on the other side of the Channel.
But at least I can say London, with its heavily pro-Labour vote, is largely unpolluted by the ugly instincts that helped hand the Tories their whopping mandate to proceed to national self-harm
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