THEIR plight fired up the nation and ended in victory when Australian family Gregg and Kathryn Brain and their seven-year-old son Lachlan beat Theresa May’s “hostile environment” and were allowed to remain in Dingwall, the Highland town they had made their home.
The battle pitted the family, friends, supporters and a few politicians, along with The National, against the Home Office, who had withdrawn the post-study work visa they had banked on after selling up in Oz to move to Scotland in 2011.
On Wednesday, The National shared with the family a video we shot five years to the day when Nicola Sturgeon met them at Holyrood – amid a media circus – to support their case, and although we have remained in touch since their days in a “goldfish bowl”, we wondered how the Brains reflected on the passage of time.
READ GREGG BRAIN'S PIECE: 'Five years after winning battle with Home Office, we're marked by Westminster'
Writing in The Sunday National, Gregg says they are “just another family living a quiet life in a Highland village” and loving it.
The intervening years have been tinged with some sadness with family bereavements, but Lachlan is now preparing to go to secondary school, Kathryn is helping friends with historical research and Gregg is working as a health and safety officer.
However, their Home Office woes are far from over and they have had to shell out thousands of pounds on visas and health surcharges.
Gregg also believes they’ve been “marked” by Westminster: “By 2016 we’d probably entered the UK maybe eight or 10 times. Each time we’d breeze through immigration, pretty much without breaking stride.
“Since 2016, I’ve re-entered the UK three times ... Each time on return, without fail, we’ve been detained. We’ve had to argue against being put straight on to another flight out.”
He says he will continue writing pro-indy articles for blogs, such as the Spider Principle, with an eye on the ultimate prize, and adds: “If as a part of the independence celebrations, Scotland’s very first citizenship certificate has the name Lachlan Brain on it – well in that moment, I’ll count my life complete.”
READ GREGG BRAIN'S PIECE: 'Five years after winning battle with Home Office, we're marked by Westminster'
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