There is currently a petition doing the rounds on Facebook and elsewhere aimed at the UK Government asking that those people who have emigrated to some other Country be permitted to still vote in the UK for more then the current 15 years. WHY??????????????????? I can understand somebody still wanting to vote in UK Elections and being able to so who is working on a fixed term contract of say up to 10 years in a foreign country or in the Armed Forces or Diplomatic Service and still retains a home in the UK, has investments there, and who pays UK Income Tax and National Insurance and Council Tax on their UK home. What I do NOT accept is that those who have retired to for example France and have sold up their UK home and other assets would still have a say in who runs their former Local Council or the UK Government especially for years after they have left Britain. As a comparison I left Glasgow in 1972 to live in Reading Berkshire. It would have been absurd for me to still vote for the Local Council in Glasgow or for the MP in the then Glasgow Govan Constituency rather than for Reading Borough Council and what was then Reading Constituency and of course it was in the latter that I subsequently voted. In my own case I moved to France 18 months ago to live and work and have sold my UK Flat and paid the proceeds into my French Bank Account. Apart from the occasional visits to friends I have no intention of returning to the UK to live and no longer pay British Income Tax and National Insurance, or Council Tax to where I used to live. I have also declined to fill in any form to renew my name on the British Electoral Register for my former Ward and Constituency as to my way of thinking morally I have no longer any right to vote in the UK and have absolutely no desire to do so. To me what would make far greater sense would be a petition to grant full voting rights IN THE COUNTRY WHERE THEY NOW LIVE to ex-pats who desire to make that country their new home such as myself and either work there as I do or have retired to that country from the UK. I have registered to vote in France and have done so in their March Municipal Elections and in the Euro Election in May of this year but although I have paid French Income Tax and Social Security as well as the Impôt de Habitation = Council Tax I am not permitted to vote for the Regional Councils, National Assembly nor the President which I would like to do and am affected by, but ironically if I wanted to I could obtain a Proxy Vote for the UK Elections in which I have no interest but a purely academic one. I intend to apply for French Citizenship in 3 1/2 years when eligible to do so but feel that being one who had made France his home that I should be able to vote in all French elections now. It would make more sense to raise a Petition to the European Parliament to ask its member nations to fully extend their franchise to EU citizens for other member states who have emigrated to other EU Countries on a permanent basis.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 11:18:41 +0000
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