"We will be saying to EU citizens we will unilaterally guarantee your rights." - Shadow Brexit Sec Sir Keir Starmer lays out Labour's stall

What you are describing is not an agreement, it's just an exchange of verbal statements not backed up by any kind of substance from which to derive certainty.

Statements of intent are useless when it's clear the government has no idea how it is going to do it and when it is evident that it doesn't have a clue.

And for the EU it's impossible to agree to even this in this form as the UK has specifically declared that it will not agree to the courts that normally oversee the rights of EU citizens.

A50 notification has been issued now, how come there's no 5 minute agreement announced yet? Because it's not straightforward. The UK has created complicating conditions as an opening position (and quite needlessly so, as the rejection of European courts on this topic is largely symbolic and ideological).

What is 100% evident to people who are affected by Brexit in this way is that the EU is not treating its citizens as bargaining chips or collateral. It's the top priority. Same can't be said of the UK - ministers have literally said immigrants are a card to play.

The only people putting any doubt on this are the EU negotiators.

The only people that have put things in doubt are that lead the electorate down into Brexit. The EU didn't force this scenario where the UK suddenly feels the need to extricate it not just from the EU, but the SM, the customs union and the courts. The government decided that. And I don't recall any leave voter or brexiteer politician for that matter before the referendum pointing out that leaving my end up endangering the livelihoods of British expats, but suddenly there are lots of leave voters with a sudden concerns for the future of expats (many of whom who didn't get to vote).

You're making out that we have to submit to everything they want and hope we get something back.

Now you just descend into victim mentality, where the EU is the bully. The UK made up the EU28, now it's the EU27. Twenty-seven other democracies who are in a market with agreed rules, having to manage a destabilizing departure from a leading member and make sure their own economies don't suffer too much as a result of the decision of one member. If this were France leaving and the UK part of the EU27, it would be Brits having to explain to France to not be under any illusions and it would no doubt be unified with the other member states as it is in the national interest. A group doesn't allow a single member to dictate its future, that is just the nature of the situation. You can paint that as the EU being bullies or not, the UK went into this situation with eyes wide open.

In a negotiation if you simply give everything up beforehand, you will be bent over a desk.

You are making the argument that (1) humans should be bargaining chips, assuming that (2) the UK's hand is so weak that this is a card that has to be played in order to not get a bad deal and (3) assuming that a scenario in which the UK grants guarantees unilaterally weakens the UK's hand or heightens the price of protecting the rights of expats.

Those premises are simply mistaken. I won't convince you why, as your position is settled. But you might want to entertain the possibility that they might be wrong. Where you see the governments failed attempt to get an early doors agreement as proof of the UK's benevolence, I see an amateur move that was never going to fly but was interpreted by some people as confirmation of their beliefs about a supposedly nefarious EU and their 'hostile' intentions.

The EU didn't make the UK vote while leaving the large majority of people who are most effected by Brexit without a say at all. Long-time expats and 3+ million EU nationals who've settled in the UK in good faith got no vote. Why weren't the rights and concerns of those citizens important then? Why are they now? What changed? The EU has been consistently pro citizens, before and after the referendum. I very much doubt you would trust the gov't if you were an expat or a migrant.

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