Regarding Tony Broadbent’s letter

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January 21

Tony Broadbent has nothing but criticism of the EU government accusing it of being a ruthless dictatorship. The EU is accountable to the European Parliament and operates in a decent democratic way.
Compare my experiences of dealings with the EU and British governments over the last 5 years. I have wanted answers to complex questions about cross border social security law and also on immigration law.
On both fronts, the British government just told me to consult specialist lawyers who would charge me £300 an hour, a sum that no way could I afford. The EU government however provided me with decent clear detailed legal advice given by their own legal experts for no fee whatsoever, this being one of the services they offer to all European citizens and which we will lose our rights to if we leave the EU.
I married a third party national and I wished to continue to live in Europe with my wife. The British government denied me that right, saying that for a residence visa to be granted to my wife, I had to earn £30,000 a year and have available accommodation for her.
The British government says you have to have £30,000 a year in order to live in the UK, but it does not pay an invalidity pension of £30,000 or anything close to that sum.
The EU government said that once I was resident, I had a right to bring my wife to be resident too. I got Spanish residence and by virtue of my European citizenship was able to bring my wife to live with me. Which government is more humane, the British one who denied my wife residence on the basis of my basic income, or the European government who gave my wife rights and enabled her to work here?
Tony Broadbent says anyone who prefers the EU government must be mad. Not the case at all. The EU government has a track record of professionalism, decency, respecting human rights, and giving people freedom. It is the British government who wants to put up barriers, deny people their basic human right of free movement, and keep people in a prison of its own making.
It is true as Tony says that in the past it has been the British government who has saved the people of Europe from oppressive tyrants, but now the tables are turned – today it is the European government who is trying to save us European citizens from the oppressive divisive tyrannical policies of the British Tory dictatorship who trumpets the result of a phony rigged referendum 3 years ago in which we were not even allowed to vote in. Brexit must be defeated, and measures put in place to protect European citizens from dogmatic nationalistic dictators who threaten our rights and even peace in Europe. I suggest we need more Europe, not less. We need a full European passport to replace existing national passports.

Yours faithfully,
Anthony Wolseley Wilmsen.

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