Nick, thank you. Yes many of my friends and colleagues are jealous of the fact I live in Putney. (Some of the younger ones who struggle to buy a rabbit hutch in the home counties these days wonder how I managed it but I have to explain mere computer consultants could afford to live here in the late 70s when I purchased my flat in East Putney.)Yes, UK passports aren't a bad thing to have, one qualifies for the US visa waiver scheme and can enter some countries like Canada without a visa (or you could the couple of times I went there). Unfortunately, Brexit has devalued it somewhat: prior to that fateful event going to a meeting in Brussels, Paris, Frankfurt, Dublin, etc felt much the same as going to one in Edinburgh, Newcastle, Cardiff, etc (in fact, sometimes the English was easier to understand!); however, post Brexit I no longer have the freedom to just up sticks and take a job there. Ok, I may not want to as I love living in Putney and I'm past pension age anyway but I know people who do, and I also know (a) someone who if she hadn't been able to get an Irish passport would probably have lost her travel job in Europe; (b) people who have had life plans ruined because they can no longer travel between the UK and France with their pets in the same way they would between two places in the UK, which they could do before Brexit.So, yes, UK passports are not useless but they're not as useful post Brexit as they were pre Brexit, and, yes, I'm pleased that there are still people with skills that want to come to the UK and become UK citizens - although we apparently make that difficult because they can't bring dependent relatives they wish to care for with them.We'll just have to see how things pan out over the next few years. Personally, I think we'll move back closer to Europe, particularly when some of the younger people realise what's been taken away from them. Although, to be honest, who knows what Europe will look likepost the Russian/Ukraine conflict?(Jane. I don't think this has anything to do with Russia, other than Putin's driving Ukraine towards EU membership, and Sweden and Finland NATO membership!)
Michael Ixer ● 1045d