Brexit was supposed to protect Britain from all those nasty immigrants from Europe who threatened ‘ar sovrinty’. Which it probably did, to some extent. Certainly we don’t find so many foreign doctors and nurses in our hospitals as we used to, which will be a comfort for the able-bodied; or all those people talking funny foreign languages on the Tube.

The other side of this, however, is the difficulties we can encounter travelling in Europe; and even returning to Britain after staying there, if we’re British. I’m planning a short trip back there next week, but with a lapsed British passport (I thought my Swedish one would suffice), and experiencing considerable problems getting the visa I now require; although that may be due to my stupidity with the internet. (All those passwords…)

That pales into insignificance, however, by comparison with the experience of Joyce Thomas, a 78 year-old British pensioner, who has lived here in Sweden for 22 years, working as a nurse, but whom the Swedish authorities won’t allow either to stay or to return to her grown-up family in Britain, because she doesn’t have Swedish citizenship, and so is still formally an ‘alien’. Before Brexit, of course, that wouldn’t have mattered. Dagens Nyheter has a report on this today. Luckily the Vänster (Left) Party have taken up Joyce’s case. One problem, however, is that the Swedes are sticklers for rules. It’s one of their less admirable characteristics, in my view.

And the Vänsters have other problems with migrants. I’ve mentioned the weaponisation of ‘anti-semitism’ in Sweden before (https://bernardjporter.com/2025/04/11/leftist-anti-semitism-in-sweden/). It’s coming up again, just before our general election this coming Sunday. What may justify the charge to an extent is the numbers of (naturalised) Moslem immigrants who have joined the party recently, on the grounds of its opposition to Israel in Gaza. The anti-semitism coming from them can be appalling; and food and drink for the Right.