British expat association planned in favour of expat voting

Written by Brian Cave, January 2008

Many British expatriates are politically stateless.

I have been concerned for some time about the lack of representation of the huge numbers of British expatriates in Europe in the UK parliament. I’m having thoughts of setting up a British expatriate association to give weight to any campaign. I have received much support for my views. (see especially The Daily Telegraph internet paper) . In effect all British expatriates are, or will be after 15 years of non residence in the UK politically stateless. Can anyone think this is right?

A expatriate association in Spain has similar interests. It has several thousand members though nearly all the activity falls on the shoulders of two people. I have thought that it might be of value to have such an organisation for France. What would be its purpose? One answer is that it would give weight to any campaign. Writing to politicians – or the media – we could claim to represent X000 members. If anyone is interested please contact me by e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

There is a petition on the Downing Street web site link. The petition ends on March 10th, so there remains little time to get one's voice heard. At this moment it has about 350 signatures. Weblinks to the petition site as follows.

1. For information issues in Europe relating to expatriates:
http://www.lefourquet.net/Votes.html
2. For adding your name to the petition :
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Votes-Europe/

Other relevant links:

International Labour Group video (on the same theme)

A clearing house web-page for the campaign

A blogged commentary from The Daily Telegraph

Brian Cave

Set as favourite

Bookmark

Comments (2)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Show/Hide comments

...
written by HappyInFrance , 10 January 2008

Why should we have the right to vote in the UK? We left it behind and the meagre tax some of us pay there exonerates us from paying tax on the same money in France.
No taxation without representation is the battle cry and is put forward as a fought-for American ideal. Yet Americans are taxed in America no matter where they live in the world and they're taxed on the same money they may already have paid tax on in the country they live in.
That's the price Americans pay for the honour of carrying an American passport.
I'm willing to pay a little tax for the honour of having a British one even if I can't vote in Britain.

...
written by Brian Cave , 10 January 2008

Reply to HappyInFrance from Brian Cave
As I say elsewhere- there are very many conditions and circumstances of expatriate. Their intensity of ties to the UK are as varied. In short all should not be denied the right to be represented because some or many do not want this representation. One does not have to vote! To have an MP who represents you means that you can approach that MP as a constituent to sort out some problem. One may have family resident in the UK. One may intend to return one day. One may in fact pay a good deal of tax to the UK. One's OAP is regulated by the UK. At the moment the Government can do what the hell they like with matters concerning the expats and there is NO-ONE to argue with the,m because we are not represented satisfactorily. The Governmrnt discusses issues with the EU commissioners without consulting us on matters which concern us. Recently the expat assoc. in Spain has made some really important representations to the EU concerning payments to expats. The UK government is being obstructive. In brief if we have no representation, we, in the mind of the UK Government do not exist!
I urge readers to sign the petition and read my web page and the others on the issues.

Show/Hide comment form

Write your comment

* Denotes Required

* Name

* Email (will not be published)

* Your Comment smaller | bigger

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

security image
Type the displayed characters in lower case

[ Back ]