James O'Brien On The Government's Shameful Process For EU Citizens
21 January 2019, 11:56 | Updated: 21 January 2019, 14:54
James O'Brien admitted he never thought he'd live in a country in which citizens would have to show their papers to be able to stay in the place they call home.
The Home Office scheme to register an estimated 3.5 million EU citizens living in the UK has opened this morning. Adults will have to pay £65 and register in order to secure settled status.
The process has been beset by problems, with many people struggling to get the technology to work correctly.
And after hearing some of the stories of concerned EU citizens, James spoke of his disgust with the process.
Speaking on his LBC show, James said: "The IT system doesn't recognise Jakub's residence in this country and asks for additional documentation. What do you do if you haven't got it?
"That phrase, man. Asks for additional documentation. We're asking these people to provide their papers in return for the privilege of paying to continue living at home. I never thought I'd live in a country like this.
"'But I didn't mean you.' Oh. 'I certainly didn't intend this to happen,' they'll be queuing up to tell you.
"People in my profession, newspaper columnists and the like, who have been buying into the nonsense about wage deflation. Every time somebody says 'I'm voting leave because there's a housing shortage' or 'I'm voting leave because of the queues at the hospital', all of those people, they did mean you.
You don't get to distinguish when your blaming immigrants for massive underfunding, for cuts to the Health Service. You don't get to decide which immigrants you're blaming and which immigrants you're not.
"If you voted for this because you bought into these lies, then you did mean Antonella, I'm sorry to break this to you because I'm sure deep down you're a good person and you didn't realise just how completely you're being manipulated. You did mean Bill in Bangor and his wife.You did mean these people, you did mean Max.
"You don't get to decide who you meant when you voted according to racist lies about immigration. You voted to hurt every single one of them. And it worked."
