A bit more clarity required? NI is not a member of great Britain only of the UK this can be seen on any "British" passport. The UK of great britain and NI.
So is it not more correct to say she is UKish not british?
Is this the UK controlling its borders? Are the rules different for a citizen of an ex colony?
Couldn't agree more.
As far as I'm aware, there is no such word as "UKish." The term "British" (with a capital B) refers to citizens of the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland," even if it isn't "geographically accurate."
And if you read my post, you'd see that under the Good Friday / Belfast Agreement, which is an international treaty, people born in the 6 counties of Northern Ireland can
choose to have Irish citizenship, British citizenship or both at the same time. Emma DeSousa chose to be Irish only, but the UK Government insisted that she was British first and foremost, and any rights related to her Irish nationality were superseded by that.
The situation was nothing to do with the UK "controlling its borders," and has nothing to do with Ireland being an "ex-colony." When the UK signed the treaty, they agreed that people in the North could
choose to be Irish and choose not to be British. This was a
really important step to getting the agreement signed and bringing an end to decades of violence. As Gramsci mentioned, this also made no difference to their rights because people of both nationalities shared the same rights under Freedom of Movement.
In order to make their racist, xenophobic fever dream of Brexit come true, both the Government and Opposition leadership have shat on this international treaty, stripping away rights that it guaranteed to people in Northern Ireland, as well as trying to force the Republic of Ireland into enforcing a "hard border" (and strangely unbothered by the prospect of migrants "slipping over" into UK territory if they don't).
This argument does seem to be a cornerstone of brexit.
The EU does allow all sovereign states to set their own immigration policy with just a few guidelines such as not setting a minimum income requirement far above the rate at which it's citizens can claim help from the countries social security system. However restricting access to social security etc has never been a problem for the EU. Many countries in the EU allready do this. Of course this only applies to EU citizens not citizens of countries outside the EU which have allways been the responsibility of each sovereign state.
So Britain has allways had the ability to control its borders.
As an example in the country I now reside this ladies husband, as an american would be subject to criminal record checks and means tests to ensure he will not be a burden on society before residency is granted. Marriage is not a guarantee of acceptance but it does help immensly when applying for citizenship (not residence) as each case is considered individually.
The current rush by the government to implement changes to the british immigration policy then seems to be a simple piece of guile by the government to cover up its own incompetence by blaming the EU.
I think I cross posted there - yes, for decades the UK Government - mostly when led by Tories - has lied about the EU being to blame for all manner of policies that were actually within their gift to change, but it suited them not to.
