Thread by @Helenreflects

What swung the vote to yes (#repealthe8th) was the personal stories of women who had to go abroad, who were forced to carry to term. Meanwhile the UK establishment is bent on going ahead with Brexit in spite of all the heart-rending stories of @The3Million and @BritishInEurope 1/

Never during the Stronger In campaign were we actually talked about as people - with homes, families, friends, who contribute. Axel Scheffler said in his moving speech that the Leave vote hurts and makes him angry every day, it felt like a bitter rejection 2/

The way to dehumanize people is two ways.
1. Numbers game: talk about people in "liquid metaphors" (floods of people, streams of migrants)
2. Linking EU citizens and crime: talk about "EU killers we failed to deport" (@DailyMailUK) 3/

Even now we are not human beings. We are still human shields, or bargaining chips to get a better deal. The EU and UK are haggling over our rights. If you are not @BritishInEurope or @The3Million it's hard to convey to you how dispiriting it is to see and hear about this 4/

It is dispiriting to see the UK eager to take away our right to appeal decisions of the HO (noted for its incompetence) by the immigration exemption to the Data Protection Act: the implication is clear - human rights are for British only, not for migrants. 5/

I will never forgive Cameron for using us like means to an end in this way. I will never forgive the UK government for treating us this way. I don't want to become British but if I must, I will never, ever vote Tory. 6/

I write blogposts on this issue regularly (such as this one). Blogposts I've never thought I had to write, to basically say we are human beings and are entitled to dignity, autonomy, and respect. Just like the women of Ireland.
medium.com/p/betrayed-tru… 7/

And I get letters every day. I would like to quote from one I just got yesterday, a French citizen who lived in the UK. This letter is just one among many I received. 8/

Excerpt: "I have since left Brexit Britain where I studied, got married to my British husband and gave birth to my children. I will never set foot in the U.K. though. Part of me has died."
Come on British establishment, wake up? Are you seriously doing this to people? 9/

Is immigration control worth all this human cost? Why isn't there a big change in attitude, like in Ireland, where people felt moved with compassion by stories about women who were forced to go abroad for abortions? 10/

Are we not your friends, neighbours, co-workers? Don't you see the hurt this is causing us?
Just last week a German family moved out from my village due to Brexit. And two more families with non-UK citizens are moving this summer, due to Brexit. 11/

I am non-plussed at this point that people fail to be moved. That people can still callously say "We don't mean you"and think that lets them morally off the hook. While meanwhile people I know are terrified of this settled status application process, of being rejected 12/

Terrified of losing their home. And people just don't seem to care. It's profoundly dispiriting. /ends