Brexit storm and EU citizens

Letter to Editor of "Ealing Gazette"
from Wiktor Moszczynski, 48 Inglis Road, London W5 3RW, tel 07786471833
Dear Mr Editor,
I would like to commend the piece by Stephen Pound MP on the Brexit dilemma for EU citizens in Ealing. They came her in good faith, found work easily, especially in the boom years of the Noughties, set up families, contributed to the UK economy and to the Ealing Council tax base and play a crucial role in the vibrant cultural and commercial life of Ealing.

Currently the see saw on Brexit between the House of Lords and the House of Commons has given EU citizens the merest glimmer of hope that their contribution will be recognized and their future right to stay and work here will be guaranteed as promised initially by all the major Leave campaigners. The work by Steve, as well as his neighbour MPs, Rupa Huq, Virendra Sharma and Andrew Slaughter, to ensure the continuing rights of EU citizens, is particularly appreciated by the the Polish community in Ealing and Hammersmith, both the post-war refugees and the more recent EU arrivals.

We know that Labour MPs will vote for the amendment again to ensure EU citizens currently here can stay. This is not a vote to reverse Brexit, but to make it more palatable for British businesses, the care industry and the NHS, as they need to know the long term future of their EU employees..

However Steve's main task now is to convince previously sympathetic Tory MPs that they too must vote the Lords amendment through the Commons next week. Also he must help prepare the legislative groundwork for ensuring that local government, and not the Home Office, will handle the administrative task of registering EU citizens in the new post-Brexit Britain as otherwise the process will last many years and will be done with extreme prejudice to all EU citizens who have worked in Ealing legally for many decades and for the 4322 Polish-speaking children now in Ealing schools...
Yours faithfully

England and Scotland -Two Queens

The increasing personal confrontation between two formidable women leaders, namely the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the First Minister of Scotland brings to mind the conflict between two other formidable women - Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots.
Mary too wanted European powers to interfere in England's destiny and restore mainstream European Catholicism following Henry VIII's earlier Brexit. One hopes that this time the conflict will be more amicably resolved than that earlier one, but ultimately it did end up with the Mary's son and successor inheriting both kingdoms.

EU citizens not bargaining chips

Letter to Editor of Evening Standard

Dear Sirs
You refer to the Prime Minister's "reasonable wish that British nationals should have the same protection in the EU" )2?03/17) as that which Sadiq Khan and the House of Lords want to offer EU citizens here. Unfortunately there is nothing "reasonable" about this wish if this is translated into plunging EU citizens in this country, including their mainly British-born children, into many years of a twilight existence as "bargaining chips" in future negotiations with the EU. By so doing she is exposing Brits in the EU to becoming "bargaining chips" too, precisely what she has been trying to avoid.
It looks as if it is the Home Office which is setting the agenda, regardless of their insensitivity to all things "foreign", and their current shameful treatment of EU citizens' supposedly automatic right to permanent residence, and it is making EU citizens here very very nervous. The government should swallow its pride, recognize the right to stay of all EU citizens currently here legally and leave local authorities with the one off task of registering them. It is want Brits abroad want too.
Yours faithfully
Wiktor Moszczynski
Published in Evening Standard 6th March 2017

Tony Blair and the Polish invasion

Letter to the Editor of "The New European"
from Wiktor Moszczynski, 48 Inglis Road, London W5 3RW, tel 0208 992 7816. tel 07786471833

Dear Sir,
Michael White's reflective article on Tony Blair's latest contribution to the Brexit debate ("Blair's real role: to temper romanticism with realism" (TNR 24/2/17-02/03/17) was wrong on the issues surrounding the influx of Polish and other East European workers in 2004. The arrival of these diligent workers with a positive work ethic was not in itself a mistake. On the contrary, it was overwhelmingly beneficial to the UK economy in order to help the sustain the boom at the time and largely popular with public opinion which then shared the "Labour values" of tolerance and multi-culturalism. As a result it was the UK and Ireland who get the best and most enterprising East European workers as opposed to France and Germany where almost as many workers arrived except that they stayed in the grey economy and paid no taxes. .
The real mistake at the time over these arrivals was threefold: firstly, an initial careless but dramatic miscalculation as to the numbers likely to arrive; secondly, a failure to link the National Insurance registration with the need to sign up with the Worker Registration Scheme, and thirdly, a failure until too late to invest in the social and administrative infrastructure in those parts of the country where the impact of the new arrivals left an excessive strain on local health, police and education services. These mistakes were all commented by me and others at the time and the failure to rectify them led to much of the distrust, anger and misunderstanding on the issue of EU immigration after the financial crisis blew up in the face of the economy, from which UK workers outside the big cities suffered the most. We are still paying that price today.
Yours faithfully
Wiktor Moszczynski .
Published 3rd March 2017

Councils to Register EU citizens, not Home Office - Letter to the Observer

From Wiktor Moszczynski, Convenor of "A Fair Deal for Poles in UK"
48 Inglis Road, London W5 3RW, tel 07786471833
Dear Editor,
In answer to your front page report "Chaos looms for EU citizens" (19/02/2017) the 3 million EU citizens in this country are concerned not only whether their right to stay will eventually be guaranteed but also how it would be administered once the guarantee has been given. Amber Rudd in her reply to Hilary Benn had already implied that new IDs need to be issued and new proposed regulations for access to the NHS probably makes this inevitable.
It is apparent that local authorities are already in the best position to arrange the registration and to issue appropriate IDs to their local EU residents as they are already responsible for local registers of births, deaths and marriages, the electoral roll and social service and school records. They can draw on the additional resources of the Home Office and the Department of Work and Pensions where necessary, but they already have experience in issuing bus passes, blue badges and similar documents. Also, they have a less officious and more inclusive work ethic in comparison with, say, the Home Office, which tends to seek to exclude and has been responsible for a large number of much publicized blunders recently in relation to EU citizens.
It is recognized that currently councils are under enormous budgeting pressures as their central government grants are reduced and they may be reluctant to take on new tasks but the administrative cost of registering EU citizens could be covered from a central fund, ring-fenced entirely for this purpose, in the hands of the Treasury. Let us remember that this will be but a one off exercise lasting at most two or three years. It remains vital to perform this task quickly and efficiently as Poles and other EU citizens have come here in good faith covered by the UK’s adherence to EU rules and they have contributed considerably to the UK economy and to the social and cultural fabric of this nation. There are for instance 187,000 Polish children here who saw themselves as UK citizens and they should be saved from the trauma of being sent to Poland or another EU country because their parents feel concerned about their future.in post-Brexit UK.
Yours sincerely
Wiktor Moszczynski
26th February 2017

Will the House of Lords betray us too?

The vote at the House of Commons over the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill on Wednesday 8th February was disappointing for the 2.9 million bewildered EU citizens in the UK as the amendment to secure their rights here unilaterally was defeated by 322 to 290 votes. None was more bewildered and felt more betrayed than the 984,000 who form the largest single contingent within the EU, namely the Polish citizens. Regrettably that sense of betrayal is within the Polish DNA, a legacy of the WWII experience when Poles were first lionized as Britain’s truest gallant allies and then discarded as victims of the Yalta Agreement. Now they sense a repeat “Deja vu” – the Polish work ethic praised 10 years ago in the British media, and now they and their children are but the largest contingent of EU citizens referred to humiliatingly by Dr Liam Fox, the International Trade Secretary, as “main cards” in the Brexit negotiations poker game. Not do they accept the argument about reciprocity. They believe that as it was the UK’s decision to leave the EU and not the other way round, it was the UK’s responsibility to declare immediately that EU citizens currently here will be allowed to stay. In any case the Polish government was one of the first in the EU to declare that UK citizens would be safe in Poland after Brexit. Many had come here more than 10 years ago out of a sense of adventure but then settled down her, set up families, prospered and contributed massively to the UK economy. Until the referendum brought in a new harsher reality, the overwhelming majority of them felt welcome in the UK and treated it as their new home.
Many Poles are only dimly aware from their media sources in Polish freebie magazines and websites that this amendment on their rights failed because of a confidential letter written that same day by the Home Secretary Amber Rudd to Conservative MPs which effectively conceded the principle that EU citizens currently here should be allowed eventually to stay but argued that the details of their status would be clarified during the passage of a new Immigration Bill at some unknown future date. The letter from the Home Secretary also concedes that the current advice to EU citizens to apply, when eligible, for “permanent residence” status, will take too long. This is hardly surprising to Poles as the Migration Observatory has calculated that it could take 140 years to register all 3 million EU citizens in the UK at the current rate at “permanent resident” applicants are processed. While many Poles who have been here more than 5 years are now resigned to the fact their legal status post-Brexit will be recognized eventually at some future date it still does not protect them and their children from insulting comments in the work place, at school and in public areas and still leaves their status as employees with pension rights and benefit entitlements unresolved. Recently a British nationalist thug pushed a young Pole under a train in Bond Street station while another Pole was killed by thugs in Harlow. They are still vulnerable to ruthless employers exploiting the current uncertainty by blackmailing them with reduced wages. This is especially true if they have been here legally paying taxes but for less than 5 years. They need their status defined now and not during the next few years. They need to know that clear demarcation date before which their post-Brexit status will be guaranteed in the knowledge that the status of those arriving after that will depend on the result of future negotiations with other EU countries.
For the time being the EU nationals issue, along with the whole Brexit Bill, has been directed to the House of Lords who will debate it in the last week of February. The Lords, in their discussion document “Brexit: acquired rights” published in December, favoured a special status that should be defined and implemented unilaterally covering all EU citizens, including students, who arrived here legally before the referendum date of June 23rd 2016. Will the House of Lords have the courage to withstand the threats of the Government and the more fanatical Brexiteers and hold to what they concluded in their report? And if they pass the amendment for an immediate unilateral guarantee will the Remainer Tories on this occasion be ready to support Labour and the smaller parties in passing the amendment in the Commons? Or will they rely again on the promises of the Home Office? Poles, like other EU citizens will want to know now, and not at some future date, if they still retain the same right as UK citizens to the minimum wage, pensions, benefits, access to education and the NHS and the right to vote in local elections as before, because they are still paying the same national insurance, income tax and council tax as before. Will they still be eligible to apply for UK membership provided they have been in the UK for more than 5 years and pass the relevant civic and language tests? The more this is delayed the more Poles may decide, despite the desperate pleas of their Anglicized children, that they have been betrayed for long enough and move back to Poland or elsewhere more reliable within the EU.
Finally, Poles want to know how this eventual recognition in their status can be administered to ensure that 3 million EU citizens can register for it as quickly as possible once the guarantee has been given. Amber Rudd in her reply to Hilary Benn has already implied that new IDs need to be issued. Poles are highly suspicious of the Home Office should they be responsible for registering EU citizens. It is apparent that local authorities are already in the best position to arrange the registration and to issue appropriate IDs to their local residents as they are already responsible for local registers of births, deaths and marriages, the electoral roll and social service and school records. They can draw on the additional resources of the Home Office and the Department of Work and Pensions where necessary, but they already have experience in issuing bus passes, blue badges and similar documents. Also, they have a less officious and more inclusive work ethic in comparison with, say, the Home Office, which tends to seek to exclude and has been responsible for a large number of much publicized blunders recently in relation to EU citizens. It is recognized that currently councils are under enormous budgeting pressures as their central government grants are reduced and they may be reluctant to take on new tasks but the administrative cost of registering EU citizens could be covered from a central fund, ring-fenced entirely for this purpose, in the hands of the Treasury. Let us remember that this will be but a one off exercise lasting at most two or three years.
It remains vital to perform this task quickly and efficiently as Poles and other EU citizens have come here in good faith covered by the UK’s adherence to EU rules and they have contributed considerably to the UK economy and to the social and cultural fabric of this nation. This is not an unpopular measure as, according to a post-referendum poll, 84% respondents believe that EU citizens living in the UK should have the right to stay. The need for speeding up the decision on the continued right of EU citizens to stay is being championed by organizations such as The 3million and by the New Europeans who are now jointly, with the support of UNISON and “A Fair Deal for Poles in UK”, organizing a Mass Lobby of Parliament on February 20th.
Last year there were 984,000 UK residents with Polish nationality. Their food shops are visible in every town centre and their language is the second most common in the UK after English. They form a sizeable minority in most parts of the UK. 97,444 of them were on London’s electoral registers last year, which is 1.6% of the total London electorate. Last year too there were more than 187,000 Polish children below the age of 14, while 23,000 children of Polish mothers are born in the UK every year. These children see their future exclusively in the UK speaking Polish at home and English at school. They helped cement their parents’ further integration into British society. Yet they too are now part of Liam Fox’s “bargaining chips”. If the government delays the guarantee to their parents about their secured right to stay, many of them will have gone and the Government will enter negotiations with an empty deck of cards.
Wiktor Moszczynski, Convenor of “A Fair Deal for Poles in UK” 15th February 2017

Letter to David Davis, Brexit Minister on EU citizens in UK

Dear Minister,

I am grateful for receiving an unsigned letter dated 22 December 2016 – ref TO006534 from your Correspondence Unit of the Department for Exiting the European Union on the subject of EU citizens’ rights in this country. Regretfully I have to say that as a former Vice-Chairman of the Federation of Poles in great Britain and a former Ealing Borough Councillor I found the response somewhat unsatisfactory despite your Department’s assurances about “protecting the status of EU nationals already living here” and for the following reasons:
1/ What does “already living here” mean? What is the deadline? Does the Government intend to allow more EU citizens to arrive here before the deadline is set at some date in the distant future? It does make this open to abuse by later EU arrivals seeking to settle. The quicker your Government makes that announcement, the less abuse there would be.
2/ Just allowing EU citizens to carry on undergoing the complex procedure of applying for permanent residence and digging up all details of their travel, home addresses and details of employment over the past 5 or so years is not only especially onerous for the applicants and their families but, at the present rate that such applications are processed by the Home Office, it could take nearly 20 years to be implemented fully for all those eligible. Also these applications are more likely to be rejected by the Home Office because of the difficulty of obtaining the right information, especially for the self-employed
3/ Your proposal does not secure the rights of those who are not yet eligible for permanent residence as they have been here less than 5 years, and seriously undermines the rights of those who have been here legally under Treaty rules for less than 3 years, as their eligibility would still remain uncertain after the supposed 2 year negotiation period is over
4/ The status of permanent residence is an EU concept and will in any case be likely to be formally substituted by the UK’s “indefinite leave to remain” status and that change could involve further bureaucracy
5/ The future status of EU citizens, even with “permanent residence”, are likely to be disenfranchised of their eligibility to participate in local government elections as soon as the EU negotiations are completed, despite the fact that they pay council tax and national insurance
6/ UK employers are still finding it difficult to plan long term with their investment and employment policies because of uncertainty over the status of their current and future EU employees
7/ The dragged-out procedure for granting permanent residence or other equivalent means of ensuring the right to stay is not likely to impress other EU countries when negotiations begin after March 2017 and could be applied in the same way to UK citizens in those countries
8/ In the meantime criminal elements from the EU and those working illegally without payment of taxes would continue to live here over the 2 year negotiating period on the same status as law abiding EU citizens
9/ This elongated procedure does not make clear to perpetrators of hate crime that EU citizens currently here have a right to stay and work here, and their children have a right to attend school here.

In my opinion most of these issues can be resolved by a resolute and early decision before March 2017 to create a new legal status open to all EU citizens currently living here under Treaty rules (with some similarity to the status of Maltese citizens). A possible name for it could be “Maastricht Treaty status”. Eligibility for this status and issuing of the appropriate new ID could be handled by local government based on the electoral and social services records as well as registered births and marriages already in their possession, but enhanced by relevant records from the Home Office and DWP and financed from a special central reserve fund at the Home Office. In my view the advantages would be as follows:
1/ The deadline for eligibility can be set immediately as soon as the announcement is made. This would prevent a later surge of EU citizens to this country.
2/ Eligibility can be established very quickly by local government and will not require the complex procedures required by the Home Office for acquiring permanent residence. IDs can be issued with same speed as local bus passes.
3/ The new Status encompasses all EU citizens currently here as long as they have national insurance numbers and have not abused welfare payments or been guilty of criminal offences either here or in their country of origin. It will ease the deportation of EU criminals with no right of return.
4/ The new status would be the same as the current EU status under permanent residence but with the added right to continue to participate in local elections
5/ UK employers will be able to commence their medium and long-term planning on investment and recruitment
6/ This will have a positive effect on the EU negotiations once they begin and will make it much more likely that EU countries will reciprocate with similar rights for UK citizens abroad.
7/ Their special status protects EU citizens from intimidation by perpetrators of hate crime
8/ This is a one off right applicable only to citizens currently here from the current EU countries, including Croatia, but would not apply to citizens of any new member countries of the EU.

I would like to thank you for allowing me to make my views known and I hope that you will have the opportunity to discuss these issues with your colleagues on the Cabinet and your Civil Servants. I am also forwarding a similar letter to the Chairman of Parliamentary Select Committee on Brexit and a copy to my local MP – Dr Rupa Huq.

Yours sincerely,



Wiktor Moszczyński

A Fair Deal for Poles in the UK – Appeal to Parliament

Dear Members of Parliament, “Our ties with Poland are rooted deeply in our shared history” the Prime Minister said last week. Poland and the UK have faced external threats together since before the Second World War, and again now through NATO. Polish workers were made to feel especially welcome here when Poland joined the EU in 2004. In fact, they were encouraged to come and work here as a dynamic younger work force which would tackle the skills shortage, re-energize the British economy and rejuvenate the ageing population. Poles have continued to maintain their highly motivated work ethic, set up more than 87,000 businesses and contributed generously to the UK exchequer. After the EU referendum on June 23rd, Polish and other EU workers and their families discovered that their presence in the UK was no longer welcomed. Most Leave campaigners during the referendum campaign had promised that the status of EU nationals currently here would be safe. Yet in the aftermath of the referendum Poles in the UK found themselves open to abuse and on occasions to actual physical attacks from UK citizens who interpreted the referendum result as a call for all EU foreign workers to depart. More than 180,000 Polish children in the UK were left deeply unsettled over their future. There were ugly incidents of hate crime including serious physical assaults, arson and even murder, as well as low level intimidation in public and online. While the UK Government has said no EU nationals should be expelled they have made this conditional on EU acquiescence. The International Trade Secretary has even referred to EU nationals as being a “key card” in the negotiations lasting over the next 3 years. It is shameful that thousands of Polish children should be treated by the UK government as hostages in a diplomatic poker game. The UK government must declare unequivocally now that Polish and other EU citizens currently here under EU treaty rules, as well as their dependants, will be allowed to stay and work in this country. It is to the advantage of the United Kingdom to make such a declaration promptly because: 1/ The UK should honour its commitment to those who arrived here legally under EU legislation and have contributed to the UK economy and society. 2/ UK companies need a stable environment to plan their future investment and recruitment policies 3/ A positive tone will be set for starting future negotiations with the EU when Article 50 is invoked. 4/ There is less likelihood of a late “surge” of EU nationals once a clear demarcation date is set. 5/ Polish entrepreneurs and Polish families will not feel pressurized to leave the UK early. 6/ Perpetrators of hate crimes will be discouraged from intimidating Polish and other EU citizens. Krystyna Bell, cultural coordinator, Andrzej Błoński, architect in private practice, Alina Callender, retired civil servant , Piotr Chłapowski, architect in private practice, Dr Ryszard Chmielowiec, retired engineer, Andrzej Fόrmaniak, chartered engineer, Piotr Fudakowski, feature film producer, Danuta Hart, headmistress, Maria Horbaczewska, retired city banker, Major Otton Hulacki, retired printer, WWII veteran, Jan Jarzembowski, historian, Joanna Kańska, actor; Stefan Kasprzyk, former Mayor of Islington, Wanda Kościa, documentary film maker, Jakub Krupa, press agency journalist, Dr Olgierd Lalko, community leader, Ludomir Lasocki, former adviser to Polish Finance Minister, Jan Ledόchowski, financial adviser, film-maker, Rula Lenska, actor, Agnieszka Major, founder of Polish Psychologist Association, Director, Antah Ocean Ltd, Joanna Młudzińska, project manager, Dr Jan Mokrzycki, ex Chair of Federation of Poles in GB, Wiktor Moszczyński, ex Ealing Councillor, author, Bartłomiej Nowak, community centre manager, Tad Ostrowski, Director, Artington Legal, Irma Pietroń, solicitor, Romana Pizon, Bradford community leader, Tad Potworowski, Chartered Accountant, Krzysztof Ruszczyński, Director, Credit Union, Jolanta Sabbat, Health Policy Consultant, Janusz Sikora-Sikorski, Chair, Relief Society for Poles & Janusz and Wanda Prawdzic Szlaski Charitable Trust, former chair of the Polish Catholic Mission in England & Wales, Filip Slipaczek, Chartered Financial Planner & Patron of Faith Matters, Piotr Sowiński, veterinary surgeon, , Dr Marek Stella-Sawicki MBE, military historian, Magda Szkuta, librarian curator, Robert Wiśniowski, Chartered Accountant, A E P Zaleski, solicitor, Andrzej Zakrzewski, chartered engineer, Krzysztof Zarębski, Management Consultant, Dr Marian Zastawny, Chair Association of Polish Engineers, Jan Zylinski, former London Mayoral candidate. Contact address: Wiktor Moszczyński, Convenor, A Fair Deal for Poles in the UK, 48 Inglis Road, London W5 3RW, Tel 07786471833 To be published in The House" magazine 9th December 2016