As Article 50 is triggered, the rights of EU nationals must be guaranteed

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Demonstrators wave EU flags and union flags in Parliament Square, protesting against the Government's steps towards leaving the European Union (Getty)

Theresa May has begun the process of Britain leaving the European Union. This raises the question of the rights of EU nationals presently living in Britain, who make a huge contribution to our society. The Government has refused to guarantee these rights, saying it will wait until there is a deal involving British nationals who live in the rest of Europe. But people are not bargaining chips.

The Government’s attitude means terrible insecurity for EU nationals and their families. EU nationals who have come to live or work or study in Britain should have their rights guaranteed now – full rights, indefinitely. Anything else means that at least some people will be forcibly removed from Britain, families will be torn apart, valuable workers will be lost and there will be even more restrictions on those who are allowed to stay.

Already any EU national applying for proof of residency must now show they have been living and working in Britain for the past five years. They are required to provide documents for every occasion they have left Britain in that period. Those who have not been working must reportedly show they took out comprehensive health insurance, a requirement that was little known until recently.

The Government’s refusal to grant workers’ rights is already hitting key services. Only 96 nurses joined the NHS from other European nations in December 2016, a drop from 1,304 in July that year. This comes at a time when there are 24,000 nurse vacancies unfilled and the Government’s withdrawal of bursaries for trainee nurses is making matters worse.

The Government must guarantee EU nationals full rights now.

Lord Peter Hain
David Lammy MP
Claude Moraes MEP
Julie Ward MEP
​Ulrike Schmidt, Waltham Forest Amnesty Group
Dr Tommy Tomescu, Alliance Against Romanian and Bulgarian discrimination
​Weyman Bennett, Stand Up To Racism
​Sabby Dhalu, Stand Up To Racism
Kevin Courtney, NUT 
Dave Ward CWU 
Roger Mckenzie, Unison 
Mick Cash, RMT 
​Ronnie Draper, BFAWU 
Ian Hodson, BFAWU 
Rabbi Lee Wax
Dr Shazad Amin, MEND
Salma Yacoob
Dr Lucia Pradella, Freedom of Movement Campaign

Dear Prime Minister, you will not be able to unite the people of our divided “United” Kingdom. David Cameron’s Brexit referendum has torn us apart and released a virus that has caused irreparable damage. I fear that the UK is now a cause that is lost to the tyranny of ill-informed masses incited by the age old tools of fanatical nationalism, xenophobia and fear. However, we must at least honour the historic commitments we have made to our neighbours. If we refuse to do this then all of our heads will hang in shame.

Martin Deighton
Address withheld

In her very English way, Theresa May is no more than our own version of Donald Trump. Her mandate to govern is highly questionable. She antagonises or dismisses her opponents. She makes more enemies than friends. She has problems dealing with criticism. She speaks in meaningless sound bites.

May has no meaningful plan for Brexit that anyone has seen. She deepens the country’s divisions, despite her assertions that she wants to heal them. She has nothing constructive to say on the environment and has no solution for resolving our healthcare problems. Her Budget didn’t add up. Is this why she held hands with Trump?

Patrick Cosgrove
Chapel Lawn, Shropshire

Many people have been protesting against Theresa May's triggering of Brexit. I wonder how many of them voted for David Cameron in 2015? Were they unaware of his EU referendum commitment? Were they aware and yet assumed that, as with many other commitments by Cameron, he would renege upon it? Or were they smugly of the opinion that the Remain campaign would win?

Peter Cave
London W1

Here is an extract from A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn: “It was either Madison or Hamilton (the authorship of the individual papers is not always known), who, in Federalist Paper 63, argued the necessity of a ‘well-constructed Senate as sometimes necessary as a defence to the people against their own temporary errors and delusions, because there are particular moments in public affairs when the people, stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will afterwards be the most ready to lament and condemn’.” Brexit, anyone?

Dr NHN Mills
Newport

When they aren't hypnotically repeating their nonsensical “will of the people” mantra, our MPs are telling us how much they respect the outcome of the referendum. When a small group of xenophobic and unprincipled politicians and newspaper editors perverts the democratic process by lying and making fantastical promises, winning the support of 37 per cent of the electorate in the process, that is not an outcome worthy of anyone's respect.

Nobody outside the cloud-cuckoo land of the Brexiteer imagination believes that Brexit will be anything other than an unmitigated disaster for the currently United Kingdom. The Brexiteers, led by their puppet Prime Minister, are betraying their country. When did betraying one's country stop being high treason?

David Maughan Brown
York

Those who voted Brexit made an emotional decision based upon a fear of being controlled. After a bit of jingoism they will complain about being controlled by Parliament. Throwing their toys out of the pram will not make them happy.

Jon Hawksley
London EC1R

A new future for Scotland and Ireland

The best thing that could come out of Brexit would be a united Ireland, allowing Ulster to re-enter the EU without having to go through the 20-year process that awaits Scotland. Most Unionists are descendants of the 100,000 Scots refugees who arrived in the late 1690s as the Little Ice Age devastated Scottish agriculture with four failed harvests in five years. Those who want no part of the new Ireland could re-cross the North Channel to a Scotland in dire need of replacements for those heading south of the border if a second independence referendum succeeds.

Rev Dr John Cameron
St Andrews

The Scottish Greens have supported the SNP in calling for Indy Ref 2. It's difficult to respect this stance, however long-established it may be: a supposedly modern, inclusive and progressive party apparently wants to bring about separation and division, a friendly group of people seeking to treat people in Carlisle and Berwick as foreigners. Green supporters who reject separation need to bring their MSPs to account for what they have done – or switch to the Liberal Democrats.

John Gemmell
Birmingham

So Nicola Sturgeon is going to let us know after the Easter recess what her new Indy Ref 2 tactics may be. Now, more than ever before, Scottish politics is completely paralysed by the SNP's obsession with breaking up the UK. It seems the nationalists have given up even pretending to focus on their domestic remit.

I think we can be assured that Sturgeon and the SNP establishment will be fully occupied over the next month – not running Scotland, but working out how best to ignore our democratic wishes as expressed in September 2014 and somehow get Theresa May to change her mind. Good luck with that one.

Martin Redfern
Edinburgh

Celebrity culture

I have no doubt that the Rio Ferdinand documentary will shed some light on a particular life experience after losing his wife to cancer. Do we really, though, have to constantly rely on so-called “celebrities” to do this ? He kicked a ball around a field for a living; hardly as useful as a nurse or teacher. He has lots of money and is therefore not typical of many people who face such a life challenge (and, indeed, the many lone parents castigated by the tabloids), and he can use it to find the help that so many people cannot afford.

I know “ordinary” people may be involved in telling this story, but why hang such television programmes on the presence of a well-known person – and isn't the word “ordinary” insulting? Too much reliance on celebrity culture these days.

Richard Kimble
Hawksworth

Obesity crisis continues to grow

Yesterday the Commons Health Select Committee released a report admonishing the Government’s plans to fight obesity, claiming that proposed measures do not go far enough to tackle the crisis. The committee argued that ministers had ignored recommendations from health bodies to regulate price promotions of unhealthy food and drinks aimed at children.

Research from Oliver Wyman shows that 81 per cent of UK shoppers have noticed that sugary products are more often on promotion in their supermarket than healthy options; 60 per cent of consumers say it is their supermarket’s responsibility to help them be healthier. Rather than waiting for the regulatory hammer to fall, supermarkets in the UK should redefine themselves as health and wellbeing brands, by simplifying choices and building customer loyalty through healthy living programmes.

By showing customers how their activity and shopping habits feed in to their health, and helping them make informed decisions and trade-offs when they shop, supermarkets can influence habits in a way that is positive for their business while also delivering health benefits.

Duncan Brewer
Partner, retail and consumer team, Oliver Wyman

Make a change on climate

The demands of the human race to grow and prosper will demand more energy and make it impossible to limit the rise in global temperature. Full speed ahead means high energy consumption. Increased trade with America and the Far East, using boats and planes, will demand more fossil fuel.

If Britain grows and becomes prosperous with the aid of technology, aided by a direct flight from Manchester to Silicon Valley, the demand for the likes of cobalt will increase and the children who mine it with their bare hands, in Africa, will suffer all the more.

Donald Trump has in effect torn up America’s commitment to the Paris Climate Change Agreement. Triggering Article 50 should lead to a reduction in Britain’s national speed limit from 60mph to 50mph. It would reduce greenhouse gases, air pollution, road traffic casualties, lung disease and congestion. Accordingly, more money – maybe £350m per year – would be made available for the NHS.

Britain is divided in many ways – not least with the way people drive. If we can’t work together to make our roads safe for children to walk and cycle to school, how can we work together to make Brexit work for everyone?

Allan Ramsay
Radcliffe

I have read news reports that Donald Trump is going to take major steps to wipe out Barack Obama’s climate change record, but it seems that accelerating fossil-fuel production on federal lands, and side-lining climate considerations could lead to higher emissions of the greenhouse gases driving climate change and complicate a global effort to curb the world’s carbon output.

Trump has repeatedly questioned whether climate change is underway, and emphasised that he is determined to deliver for the voters in coal country who helped him win the Oval Office. Goodbye, world.

Barbara MacArthur
Cardiff