GeniB

Any other residents of Portugal attend the meeting given by the British Ambassador to Portugal and the vice Consul in Portimaou on Tuesday night?

Just wondered as nothing has been mentioned on here and such a meeting would I should think be of some major interest to British ex-pats.?

Anyhoo if anyone else did.. what are your thoughts on it?

AliceCaroline

Did you go GeniB?
Was it informative, did you learn anything new about the post Brexit EU situation?
I guess it's all just speculation at the moment anyway.

barlaventoexpert

I didn't go because after her last performance on Lagos last year realised that all the FO is telling HM Ambassadors to do it to go around doing a Bennie Hill with all expats & tell them it'll be all right!

See:


https://youtu.be/IU28GHMcYxM

HM Govt. & the FO are really not interested in Brits outside the UK! I really have more trust in the EU negotiators to resolve things!

GeniB

Yes Alice I did go. Despite the fact that she was put in the unenviable position of being able to tell us nothing more than she did almost a year ago,I felt it was important to meet her and the consul to make our feelings known.

They did say that only 30,000 Brits were actually registered in Portugal,which doesn't help our cause There must be at least twice that many living under the radar.

It was informative in the sense that you were made to understand that in the worst case scenario you could in theory be deported. You could lose any right to work in Portugal .You will have to change the status of your documents . You would be required to queue at airports and borders in the non EU lines. just some of the practical things . It was muted that you might want to consider taking out dual nationality (not officially of course ,an Ambassador cannot say that ) but in conversation as one of the worries ,especially for those of us who have young relatives living and working here.
The audience was quite sober and muted.Obviously very disappointed with the UK's official response.

2 million people signed a petition to have our situation sorted before Brexit.!

That this was ignored shows exactly how the government feels about us. Despite the Ambassadors passionate defence of Theresa Mays 'plans' to re- instate the British citizens right to vote for life.Somewhere, vaguely in the future. She was adamant that that right could not have been given pre.referendum I personally know that this is an outrageous lie from my connection with Richard Gardener and his 'deal' with David Cameron.

GeniB

After these two meetings I totally agree with you Barlavento. I was heartened to hear that those in charge of brokering the break with Europe (on the EU side) have said that the agenda will start with (1) how much does the UK still owe the EU. and (2) The first 'deal' will be to settle the situation of the millions of ex-pats caught up in this mess

mfesharne

I appreciate a lot of people here are worried about the situation but there's nothing whatsoever they can tell anyone at this point because negotiations haven't even begun let alone been completed so the most they can do is run a PR thing to sooth fevered brows etc.

It really doesn't matter which way people voted at this point....... All we can do is wait & then deal with whatever is decided when it finally is.

In the meantime, there's no point in worrying about it.

carvoeiro

i couldnt disagree more with this outlook
for some idiot to tell me not to worry about it when the personal risk to me and my wife is the potential loss of everything weve worked hard for all of our lives - many hundreds of thousands -two homes - and on a more personal note - the likely murder of my wife by an uncaring UK - the cancer treatment she receives here is not available if we have to return to the UK

if you have nothing to lose and are happy to bury your head in the sand - good for you
for the other 30000 people who probably have a grasp on reality there could not be a more stupid or pathetic approach to Brexit
its important to gather as much information as possible and perform your own risk analysis - then decide the best things you can do to help yourself in the certain knowledge that an uncaring Brexit UK is unlikely to help you one little bit
the old adage - to fail to plan is to plan to fail - springs to mind

our basic plan is to try for dual nationality and to protect our investments as much as possible
our plan will never be - bury your head in the sand and dont worry- insane

GeniB

I quite agree.. Just because the UK has failed us ..doesn't mean we have to sit and wait for two yrs to find out if it has seriously affected our lives.We will also be looking at ways to reduce our liabilities and protect our interests
The bright light on the horizon is that the EU negotiators have said that the UK must address ex-pats as second item on the agenda after the start of negotiations.. They at least seem to give a damn about promises made

not2old

in fact there isn't anything 'Brit expats' living in the EU can do other than 'worry & whinge', after all its in the hands of those that 'wheel the deal'

Forget Article 50, here’s Article 218 – POLITICO

mfesharne

You can whinge, worry & bleat all you like but it won't change a single thing because you can't change the referendum decision & the terms of leaving haven't been decided so all you're doing is giving yourself ulcers for no good reason so you might as well kick back, relax & deal with whatever comes when it comes.

I think you'll find it's called democracy.

carvoeiro

<<<SNIP>>>
started with a count of 17 million then 4 million realised how stupid they were to have believed the lies
now it looks like 13 million and 1

the UK is in fact a parliamentary democracy - where individuals have freely given up their democratic rights to an elected representative - in this case an mp - the mp is given the rights to vote on all matters in the parliament throughout their elected term without refering back to the electorate
the mps were entirely in favour of membership of the eu prior to the referendum - opinion poll - a question posed to a very restricted portion of the UK adult population with no legal standing or conditions attached to it - by a huge majority
as may recently stated the - huge majority - 17 million winners have spoken - and the 43 million losers - ie the minority must work hard to make brexit a success

regardless anyone happy to sit and wait for two years before doing whatever they can to protect themselves is far too stupid for me to even comprehend

zoff

This person is in favor of brexit, so he's very happy with this "democracy."

IMHO democracy requires responsibility, such as being knowledgeable of what or whom you are voting for. Recently that hasn't been the case with disastrous results.

I live in the USA so I have to live with the fact that Orange Mussolini is now "president" because many voted for this sub-human.

carvoeiro

can anyone tell me what not2old is doing posting to the portugal website
this Brexit moron is nothing whatsoever to do with portugal
in fact looking at other postings just seens to be a brexit troll - typically nothing whatsoever to say and nothing of relevance to the topic
please ban them

mfesharne

you're wrong guys..... the simple fact is I very obviously have an understanding of British democracy and you apparently don't.

The process of Parliamentary Democracy has nothing whatsoever to do with British Democracy aka direct democracy as displayed in the referendum.

The simple fact of the referendum is that every qualified person gets the opportunity to vote on the question asked..... in this case it was leave or remain with no other stipulations such as leave or remain under this, that or the other condition just leave or remain and the leave vote won by a majority of about 1.27 M.

Under the rules of direct democracy a majority of just 1 is enough to decide the vote therefore the vote to leave was won by a significant majority.

So like it or not, that's what must happen & it's as simple as that.

and childish insults won't change that so you might as well get used to it because you won't be able to change it.

mfesharne

you have every right to disagree with his politics as is your right ......... but since when was it acceptable to mock someone for their skin colour?

Prejudice goes both ways.