Freedom of movement between UK and EU could work - with right restrictions: Yorkshire Post Letters

Although opposed to mass immigration, I am not automatically against the restoration of ‘freedom of movement’ between the UK and the EU. Many EU countries, notably Poland, have come a long way since the days when Britain was a magnet for their surplus labour.

It is conceivable that we might see a balanced, two-way flow of people, many staying on a relatively short-term basis.

But the devil may be in the detail. Would our government be willing, or have the authority, to moderate our pull-factors? Benefit levels and entitlements, the minimum wage and legislation against discrimination on grounds of nationality might need adjustments. Would we be denied these?

Would non-EU migrants, who should have been stopped at the EU’s southern and eastern borders, be fast-tracked to residency rights or citizenship and then shuffled on to us?

They would not have ties of family, language or history drawing them back to continental Europe. They would originate in places whence they’d be unlikely to return and where few sane British people would wish to settle.

We are told our young people pine for the opportunity to pursue a dazzling career in Europe. But does the level of enthusiasm for learning foreign languages support such a claim? Many struggle to compete in their home labour market.

Freedom of movement was a sufficient reason for leaving the EU, but it was not the only one. Remainers tried to sell us the EU as our guarantee of peace. But it was already clear that the trajectory of the EU towards super-power status would bring new possibilities of war.

Many of our politicians embrace this as a form of virtue-signalling. But it won’t be them who have to fight.