Keep up with the latest from Bremain in Spain
Football may be coming home, but we’re not
Here's Bremain Chair Sue Wilson´s latest article for Yorkshire Bylines: When Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, announced that quarantine measures would soon be lifted for fully vaccinated Brits, the news was largely welcomed. Until Brits abroad looked at the...
Learning to live with Covid
Bremain Chair Sue Wilson writes for Yorkshire Bylines about her personal experience during the pandemic: It’s been nine months since I last saw my mum. Having been used to monthly visits, covid measures have prevented me – like so many others – from spending precious...
Why my vote is important to me
Regardless of how long we may have lived abroad, connections with the country where we were born & raised can be profound. Whether it’s the ties of family, property, business or the British culture, moving abroad cannot change our history. Decisions made by the...
“Black Lives Matter is a Marxist Organisation”
Bremain Vice Chair, Lisa Burton, recently wrote this piece about the alleged Black Lives Matter links to Marxism for Yorkshire Bylines: We hear it from politicians, celebrities, political commentators, and those who have launched a so-called ‘war on wokeness’ –...
Bremainers Ask – Terry Reintke MEP
Terry Reintke is Vice-president of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament and the group's coordinator for the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. She is Co-president of the LGBTI Intergroup and founder of the EU-UK Friendship Group. She...
Open Letter to Boris Johnson from Sue Wilson, MBE
Sue Wilson, Chair of Bremain in Spain and now a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, writes a further open letter to Boris Johnson in Yorkshire Bylines asking for his advice– you can read her earlier letters here. Dear Boris, It’s been a while...
Bremain in Spain Comment on Chair Sue Wilson´s Recognition In The Queen’s Birthday Honours List
On 12 June 2021, the British Embassy announced the names of UK nationals in Spain recognised in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours. This year, the List published in the London Gazette includes the name of Bremain in Spain’s Chair, Sue Wilson. “For services to...
Latest round of Brexit negotiations
Bremain Chair Sue Wilson writes for Yorkshire Bylines: Even before the latest round of Brexit talks began on Wednesday, both sides were laying out their stalls. By the time the chief Brexit negotiators Maroš Šefčovič and Lord Frost met, sabres were being rattled and...
Covid and Brexit: a pair of thieves
Bremain Chair Sue Wilson writes for Yorkshire Bylines: Thanks to the pandemic, the last year has seen all our lives turned upside down and inside out. Dealing with a global crisis on this scale would have been damaging enough. For the UK, and to a lesser extent, the...
Bremainers Ask – Lord Andrew Adonis
Lord Andrew Adonis is a Labour peer, historian and journalist who served in government under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Prior to entering frontline politics, he was a fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, Public Policy Editor at the Financial Times and a...
Votes for Life Update from the British Embassy
The government has announced today that British citizens who have moved abroad will be given ‘votes for life’ as the UK Government scraps the arbitrary 15-year limit on the voting rights. All British citizens who are living overseas who have been previously registered...
Citizen’s Rights On The Agenda – House Of Lords – European Affairs Committee
A month ago, the new House of Lords European Affairs Committee was formed, to replace the now defunct EU Select Committee. As expected, many of the members of the former committee, including the Chair, Lord Kinnoull, transferred across to the new committee. This was...
Life after Brexit: What are the issues that worry Brits in Spain the most?
From concerns about healthcare to problems regarding work and residency, a new survey reveals the main worries that are keeping UK nationals living in Spain awake at night, Bremain in Spain head Sue Wilson explains. Back in April, Bremain in Spain launched a...
Lord Frost, chief Brexit negotiator: UK-EU relationship a “bit bumpy”
Minister of State, Lord David Frost – best known as the chief Brexit negotiator – has had a busy few days. On Saturday 15 May, he joined the prime minister in welcoming the Irish Taoiseach, Michael Martin, to a meeting at Chequers. Then on Monday and Tuesday, Frost...
Votes for Life – a Bremain Campaign Update May 2021
Bremain in Spain has been campaigning since 2017 for the repeal of the fifteen year rule which has prevented UK citizens living overseas from being able to cast their vote in UK elections. You can read the history of UK overseas voting in the House of Commons Library....
Electoral integrity bill: voter rights vs voter suppression
After many false starts, and countless broken promises, there was a glimmer of hope for Brits abroad – and their voting rights – in Tuesday’s Queen’s speech. The scrapping of the arbitrary 15-year voting rule has been a longstanding, and oft-repeated, Conservative...
Bremainers Ask …. Richard Corbett, former MEP
Richard Corbett was an MEP from 1996-2009 and 2014-2020. During that time, he was the spokesman of the Socialist & Democrat Group on constitutional affairs, Parliament's rapporteur on the Lisbon Treaty and, for the last three years, Leader of the Labour MEPs and...
Tourism and the Spanish economy
Bremain Chair Sue Wilson writes for Yorkshire Bylines: The economies of countries around the world have been hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. In some cases, like the UK, the severe impact has in part been due to poor or late decisions on safety measures. Elsewhere,...
Authority Magazine Interview with Bremain Chair Sue Wilson
'Don’t feel intimidated by so-called experts — you are the expert and you know more than they do! — When I first met a committee of politicians, I thought I would learn something from them. As it turns out, politicians don’t know a great deal (except perhaps on their...
The challenges of law enforcement and security after Brexit
Bremain in Spain Vice Chair Lisa Burton writes for Yorkshire Bylines about post Brexit security issues: As members of the European Union, Britain played a crucial role in creating policy and the many complex systems on criminal justice and law enforcement. Our...
Is it time to drop the divisive labels?
Following the Brexit referendum, those of us with strong feelings about the outcome, exchanged our former political identities for Brexit ones. Instead of categorising ourselves as socialists, centrists, or conservatives – whether with a small ‘c’ or a big one – our...
Covid and the treatment of Brits in the EU
Bremain Chair Sue Wilson recently wrote this piece for Yorkshire Bylines about the impact of Covid and treatment of Brits in the EU: Ever since the Brexit referendum, Brits living in the EU have complained about being invisible, and with good cause. In the early...
Typically Spanish Interview Sue Wilson
Bremain Chair Sue Wilson gave an interview to Typically Spanish News in English about how Brexit was going ninety days in. You can listen to the interview below:
Neither Spain nor the EU are to blame for some Britons having to leave
Bremain Chair Sue Wilson writes for The Local.es: Some 500 Britons are to be deported from Spain, according to claims in the British media. Sue Wilson, from Bremain in Spain responds to the phoney reports and also the false accusations that somehow the Spanish and the...