DEFCON 2

Let me start by saying that I love this place. It has been my home since I arrived here more than five years ago. Back then, I was on the way out of a failed path and this country offered me the chance to have a final go at it, and then make a career change. Now, I’m about to qualify after retraining and becoming a paramedic. And just when I am ready to give back to this country, it feels like Britain doesn’t want me anymore.

Like many other European citizens I am in a difficult position. I’m part of this society yet I have no vote. Not allowed to have a say on my future, neither a year ago nor now. I have no voice. But I am tied to this country by my partner. I am too foreign back at home to return there; yet still too foreign over here as well.

My position is further complicated due to my current student status. Like most European students, no one informed us that we needed to purchase private health insurance. And without that, it means that I can’t qualify for Permanent Residence. Despite having paid taxes and National Insurance contributions in the UK since 2012.

That comprehensive medical cover is, by the way, around £60 per month from a student’s pocket. The reasoning behind it is that if we don’t have medical insurance, in case we fall ill we would be a burden for the NHS. Don’t mind that every day I don a green NHS uniform and work as any other member of the ambulance service on 12 hour shifts. For free, because I don’t get paid; quite the contrary in fact, as I actually pay university fees. I am still a burden to the NHS.

Britons don’t seem to get it. Recently, a classmate asked a potential employer if they’d keep hiring foreigners going forward. This is common in a NHS full of foreign staff because Britain doesn’t have them. No one batted an eyelid, and I still wonder why she needed to ask that. But when immediately after her I asked if I’d be supported to apply for a visa, most of my classmates laughed. It was just “the annoying European at it again”.

I found that incredibly insensitive. The inability to apply for Permanent Residence means I’m having to ask future employers if they’ll support a hypothetical visa application in case I need one. Because chances are, if Brexit talks derail, I will. But that’s not their problem. And just like a year ago, they think they know better than the experts. “You’ll be fine mate, it’s not against you”. No, mate. It is against me and many others like me.

It’s not the only thing I have had to put up with. I’ve cleaned a man’s head injury while he ranted about Europeans stealing jobs. I’ve seen marks deducted in an oral exam for my accent –not my command of English, just my accent. I’ve heard colleagues ask for a blanket ban on immigrants, and to send them all back to where they came from, immediately after a terrorist attack –perpetrated by a Kent man. I’ve been told to speak in English when I was talking to a fellow countryman. And I’ve heard first hand stories of friends being abused on the street verbally, and even physically, just for being foreign. Or homebuyers being rejected mortgage applications due to the uncertainty of our future.

In this election I feel double threatened by the Tories. On one hand, they are the ones that got us Brexit, and even the Remainers among them, look like Trojan horses of the Leave campaign. On the other hand, they seem focused on a crusade to destroy the NHS, my future employer.

The NHS is under pressure. Partially because the public abuse it, but mostly because for the last two decades it has been neglected and sold off piece by piece to private hands. I fear what will happen after Brexit, when a trade deprived Britain negotiates a deal with Donald Trump. And I know the ambulance service will be one of the first ones to go.

Boris Johnson promised Britain £350 million a week for the NHS. Theresa May’s generous offer now is £8 billion over five years. That is a bit less than £31 million a week. Where is the rest? Yet they try to sell it as a huge investment, when in reality investment in real terms has decreased year after year with Jeremy Hunt as Health Secretary. I’m not sure the NHS can survive another five years of Tory government.

This may sound like that famous poem by Martin Niemöller. First they came for the Muslims. Then for the Europeans. Then for the Scots. Then for the NHS and Human Rights. They will go for the pensioners later. And no one will be able to do anything about it because no one will remain in Britain. The only way to stop it is now, by voting the Tories out.

But I can’t do it. So it is your job to do it.