Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon Calder. It's Monday the 10th of

March. One of the many travel consequences of Brexit is the restrictions that the UK asked to become

subject to, or more particularly those of us who are British passport holders. We said we want to be

treated as third country nationals, please, put in the same category as people from Venezuela and

Tonga and other lovely places. And we certainly don't want to stay more than 90 days in any

180 days. What, with all that

culture and cuisine and sunshine? Who would ever want to do that? Well, one person who does

actually want to spend more than three months in every six months in the European Union is Stephen

Jolly, and he runs an organisation called France Visa Free.

Stephen, you're very welcome to the podcast. Tell us about this organisation.

France Visa Free was set up about three or four years ago following efforts through a similar

campaign group called 180 days visa free, which was set up on Facebook

to campaign and lobby the government to negotiate an appropriate Brexit deal that met the

needs of people like myself. The decision to leave the EU has massive consequences upon

people like myself and tens of thousands

of others who lived part year in France or Spain or elsewhere and who traveled frequently to the

EU. Now, 180 days visa free submitted evidence to parliamentary select committees chaired by

Hillary Benn, but following the Brexit deal, we shifted our

efforts to focus primarily on France, hence the organisation, France visa free. Since we've set up

the organisation on Facebook, we've lobbied the British government, the Johnson government,

the SUNAT government, and now the Stama government government to address the issues that we've raised.

And what we're basically seeking is a mobility arrangement that mirrors what the UK offers

...