Like many pensioners I no longer live in the UK as my pension and savings go further, and my quality of life, to say nothing of the weather, is so much kinder to me here in Malta. Many of us have lived outside the UK for over 16 years and have no vote in the June 23 referendum.
I would like to ask three questions to expats living and enjoying the benefits of EU membership who wish to drag the UK out of the EU.
It is difficult even with the low cost of living in Malta to manage on my British pension alone. A UK exit will affect my savings, much of which are in the form of shares in UK companies and pension funds. I remember the devaluation of the pound in the late 1960s and the squeeze the IMF put on the UK back then. Has anyone thought about how tough it was for the UK before France gave in and let us join? Is this the fate the Brexit people have in mind for you?
Can the UK make it alone now when it was clearly failing before joining the EU?
On leaving the EU it is natural to expect immediate action on EU immigration, with non-UK passport holders facing some form of restriction on movement on living and working in the UK. It is only natural to expect existing EU non-UK citizens to be asked to register at the nearest police station so they can be issued temporary visas and restrictions placed on living and working in the UK applied to them as well. I think you can see where I am going with this, and the memories of the run-up to Hitler’s rise to power in the 1930s.
Does a Brexit mean the end of free movement for UK passport holders in Europe?
A famous law of physics states that for every action there is an equal and opposite re-action. Have the Brexit people forgotten this basic rule of physics? Their next holiday to the Mediterranean may not be as cheap and easy as it is right now, and they may not be able to live, work or retire in other EU Member States; or are they too wrapped up in the Union flag to even think about this fact, or indeed about the majority wishes of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and the impact an exit vote from the EU will have on the future of the Union?
What exactly is the Brexit plan to keep Britain ‘British’ and avoid the break-up of the Union?
I would not blame Malta at all if it kicked all expats out should the UK leave the EU. It is exactly what Brexit isolation-seeking nationalistic, and dare I suggest, racist voters deserve.