Brit expat voting rights in UK elections and referendums

[Kalasin Jo]

Expat Brits in Thailand may wish to put their names to this Parliamentary petition

 

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/252711

 

It's doing the rounds in the UK and especially in the EU at the moment.

 

As you all will know after 15 years absence from the UK Brits lose all voting rights ( unlike many nationals eg France who keep them for life wherever they live and always vote in great numbers!).

 

Some may feel they have no connection with the UK other than a passport having been out of the UK for decades (. often the very same, bizarrely, who support even an extreme no deal brexit).

 

But many have UK frozen pensions ( another scandal) or UK arising private incomes and are suffering from the combination of the very weak £ and the very strong baht. Many still pay income tax to the UK too. You may also believe that you can return to the UK at any time and use the NHS for free and claim benefits but currently you can't until you have demonstrated that you are "ordinarily resident" there. That's at least 3 months and the definition is a moveable feast in other ways too for the UK authorities .

 

So if  you are  Brit you do have a vested interest in what happens in the UK and should be able to vote.

 

The Conservative Party has had restoring lifetime voting rights for expats in their manifestos for several years but does little about it. Labour opposes it and filibustered out an attempt to change this last year

 

If sufficient numbers sign the petition and the media get interested this can help.

 

If you do still have a vote you need to register, naming your last UK constituency which is where your overseas vote is cast. Registration can be done online through gov.uk Once confirmed you can then either get a postal vote or you can appoint a proxy to vote for you in the constituency. If you no longer know anyone, the main political parties can usually find someone.

 

An election could be coming very soon in the madness that has consumed British politics over brexit!!!

 

So if you are moved, why not sign the petition? It takes but a moment and then when received clicking on an email link to verify your email.

 

Why not share this link to other Brit expats you know whether in Thailand or other countries?

 

Regards All

 

KJ

Edited September 15, 2019 by blackcab
Corrected link

[sammieuk1]

Some may feel they have no connection with the UK other than a passport having been out of the UK for decades (. often the very same, bizarrely, who support even an extreme no deal brexit).

 

Because they think Britannia still rue's the waves and the red passport should only be the thing that opens up the world or they just like carrying around a fad wad of worthless pounds its a comfort thing or again I could be completely wrong but I'm sure one will be along shortly to clarify why we would all like to know ????

[sanemax]

On 9/15/2019 at 3:59 AM, sammieuk1 said:

Some may feel they have no connection with the UK other than a passport having been out of the UK for decades (. often the very same, bizarrely, who support even an extreme no deal brexit).

 

Because they think Britannia still rue's the waves and the red passport should only be the thing that opens up the world or they just like carrying around a fad wad of worthless pounds its a comfort thing or again I could be completely wrong but I'm sure one will be along shortly to clarify why we would all like to know ????

Nope , do confine just making things up about non existent people and stating what these made-up non existing people think

[elliss]

 

 UK residents , and  those paying community tax,  are the only ones , who should have the choice to vote .

  The rest are just, i have , etc ...

 

Edited September 15, 2019 by elliss

[sammieuk1]

9 hours ago, sanemax said:

Nope , do confine just making things up about non existent people and stating what these made-up non existing people think

Riveting reply ????

[theoldgit]

14 hours ago, elliss said:

 

 UK residents , and  those paying community tax,  are the only ones , who should have the choice to vote .

  The rest are just, i have , etc ...

 

What about those still paying UK income tax, they might like to have a say as to how their tax is spent? or at least let them believe they’re having a say.

What’s community tax?

[Baerboxer]

15 hours ago, elliss said:

 

 UK residents , and  those paying community tax,  are the only ones , who should have the choice to vote .

  The rest are just, i have , etc ...

 

 

Rubbish!

[NanLaew]

6 hours ago, sammieuk1 said:

Riveting reply ????

Well you started it so what did you expect? A treatise on the virtues of clinging to colonial aspirations in an era of rising nationalism and a broad retreat from globalism?

[sammieuk1]

11 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

Well you started it so what did you expect? A treatise on the virtues of clinging to colonial aspirations in an era of rising nationalism and a broad retreat from globalism?

I got what I expected so far????

[alan grice]

Why should a Brit Vote.?. They voted over Brexit and Yobs caused problems cause they didn’t like it.[emoji232]


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[NanLaew]

If the expatriate Briton hasn't cared to maintain his/her legal right to vote at home while gallivanting around the globe, that's entirely their own fault wrought of their own blissful ignorance and a misplaced sense of entitlement. Giving them back the vote that they so cavalierly discarded as irrelevant is a slap in the face of those with the intelligence who appreciated that retaining your voting rights in your birth nation AND HAVE EXERCISED THAT VOTING RIGHT, is a thing of fundamentally great importance.

 

It is only now that the recent rigors of Thai immigration procedural changes and the rubbish exchange rates have conspired with the slowly gathering global economic depression to garner the faltering attention of those woefully and misbegotten short-sighted pseudo-colonials. The chickens are truly coming home to roost but I suggest that the door to the NHS and free bus pass hen house should be boarded up.

 

As for these government-endorsed petitioning platforms, if you are not registered to vote in the UK, then you shouldn't be allowed to sign the bloody things.

[Estrada]

NanLaew has no idea. Expats who have resided and worked or are on pension outside of the UK cannot apply to vote despite being British and being subject to UK tax. In France their citizens and passport holders all have the right to vote in referendums and GEs. In Germany the rights last 25 years. Many countries allow their pasport holders to vote for life in GEs and referendums. The British Government deliberately denied British passport holders living in the EU and overseas the right to vote, denying the considerable Remain vote counting. In February 2018, the Overseas Electors Bill was presented to Parliament, with a view to abolishing the 15-year limit and the requirement to have registered to vote before leaving the UK. This would grant all British expatriates the unlimited right to vote, as long as they have lived in the UK at some point in their lives. The issue is a hotly debated topic among British expatriates who have lived in other EU Member States or overseas for more than 15 years and were thus barred from voting in the referendum on European Union membership, despite arguably being more affected by the result than British people living in the UK.

[CaptainNemo]

17 hours ago, sammieuk1 said:

Some may feel they have no connection with the UK other than a passport having been out of the UK for decades (. often the very same, bizarrely, who support even an extreme no deal brexit).

 

Because they think Britannia still rue's the waves and the red passport should only be the thing that opens up the world or they just like carrying around a fad wad of worthless pounds its a comfort thing or again I could be completely wrong but I'm sure one will be along shortly to clarify why we would all like to know ????

...or forced out of the UK by unprecedented mass immigration pushing up the cost of living, doubling house prices, an emergent police state instigated by new labour, and a rabid extreme left establishment that attacks traditional families and everything that isn't a minority... refusing to pay for it is legal resistence.

[CaptainNemo]

1 hour ago, alan grice said:

Why should a Brit Vote.?. They voted over Brexit and Yobs caused problems cause they didn’t like it.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

the left doesn't want people to vote, especially if they are not dependent on them. The Remain Parliament refuses a General Election, and wants to choose for us... despite the result of the referendum they hate.

[HHTel]

18 hours ago, Kalasin Jo said:

You may also believe that you can return to the UK at any time and use the NHS for free and claim benefits but currently you can't until you have demonstrated that you are "ordinarily resident" there. That's at least 3 months and the definition is a moveable feast in other ways too for the UK authorities

Not true.  When you return to the UK, you only have to state that you have returned for settlement.  You will get full NHS and benefits immediately.  I know as I've done that.  My children changed my mind after 6 months and we returned to Thailand.

[worrab]

19 hours ago, Kalasin Jo said:

You may also believe that you can return to the UK at any time and use the NHS for free

You can now as of April 2019. I was back in July for 3 weeks and a good friend of mine who works for the NHS told me this has happened. It must be right as I did not have to pay the NHS fees when at Specsavers! 

Edited September 16, 2019 by worrab

[sanemax]

On 9/15/2019 at 1:50 PM, sammieuk1 said:

Riveting reply ????

Did mean *continue * , rather than"confine"

[worrab]

1 hour ago, Estrada said:

Expats who have resided and worked or are on pension outside of the UK cannot apply to vote despite being British and being subject to UK tax.

Yes they can as long as they were registered to vote whilst living in the UK. I have done it and am registered as an overseas voter.

 

[NanLaew]

1 hour ago, Estrada said:

NanLaew has no idea. ...

NanLaew, a British citizen of Scottish birth and genealogy going back beyond Bannockburn, who is not resident and not ordinarily resident in the UK (and has been such since 1977) or Thailand, successfully became a registered British voter in 2015. This after being DENIED a Scottish referendum vote by the SNP. This is the same straw-clutching SNP who handily granted a vote to my English tenant and his wife who had been renting my castle for only 14 months... and now want to give 16 year-olds the vote.

 

1 hour ago, Estrada said:

... The British Government deliberately denied British passport holders living in the EU and overseas the right to vote, denying the considerable Remain vote counting. ...

Subsequently, NanLaew who is STILL not resident and not ordinarily resident in the UK, among other things, used his vote to Leave the EU. My mind was already made up on that but when I later learned that most Scots (that bothered to vote) had optioned to Remain and the SNP started demanding another independence referendum, I had a wee party to celebrate their consummate and enduring misfortune.

 

 

[evadgib]

Of interest to the OP:

I have signed this latest effort but it'll come too late to make any difference this year.

Edited September 16, 2019 by evadgib

[NanLaew]

1 hour ago, CaptainNemo said:

...or forced out of the UK by unprecedented mass immigration pushing up the cost of living, doubling house prices, an emergent police state instigated by new labour, and a rabid extreme left establishment that attacks traditional families and everything that isn't a minority... refusing to pay for it is legal resistence.

Forced out... ROFLMAO.

 

I reckon with all those cctv cameras, the Tories have done more to facilitate your fanciful 'police state'.

 

PS: Did you ever visit Dresden in the 1980's? No? I thought not. I had been working in The People's Republic of China for a couple of years back then and went on holiday to East Germany, just for a reality check.

[theoldgit]

20 minutes ago, worrab said:

Yes they can as long as they were registered to vote whilst living in the UK. I have done it and am registered as an overseas voter.

Likewise, in fact I got a note a couple of weeks ago advising me to renew my status, which I did online, I left the UK in 2007.

[billd766]

18 hours ago, elliss said:

 

 UK residents , and  those paying community tax,  are the only ones , who should have the choice to vote .

  The rest are just, i have , etc ...

 

Well I have been paying income tax in the UK since July 1959 and will continue to do so until I die. 

 

What was the slogan in America during the 1700s?

 

NO taxation without representation.

 

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/tax_without_representation.asp

 

What Is Taxation Without Representation?
Taxation without representation is the act of being taxed by an authority without the benefit of having elected representatives. The term became part of an anti-British slogan when the original 13 American colonies aimed to revolt against the British Empire.

[Guderian]

It's not after 15 years of absence from the UK, it's 15 years after you were last on the electoral register. I left the UK in 2004 and informed everybody I could think of, but it still took them 3 years to remove me from the electoral register. I'm currently allowed to vote as an overseas voter until 2022.

 

Anyway, thanks to the OP for raising this, I've signed it as I pay UK tax on my pensions there, I keep a home for my own use twice a year on my "holidays" in the UK, and feel that I am entitled to a say in how the stupid country is ruled. Or maybe that should be, a say in how the country is ruled by the stupid?

[sammieuk1]

14 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

NanLaew, a British citizen of Scottish birth and genealogy going back beyond Bannockburn, who is not resident and not ordinarily resident in the UK (and has been such since 1977) or Thailand, successfully became a registered British voter in 2015. This after being DENIED a Scottish referendum vote by the SNP. This is the same straw-clutching SNP who handily granted a vote to my English tenant and his wife who had been renting my castle for only 14 months... and now want to give 16 year-olds the vote.

 

Subsequently, NanLaew who is STILL not resident and not ordinarily resident in the UK, among other things, used his vote to Leave the EU. My mind was already made up on that but when I later learned that most Scots (that bothered to vote) had optioned to Remain and the SNP started demanding another independence referendum, I had a wee party to celebrate their consummate and enduring misfortune.

 

 

I had a "wee" party to when I woke up to find my income and savings here had lost north of 20% whilst counting sheep and over the ensuing years a dirty protest has sadly started ???? 

[wwest5829]

19 hours ago, elliss said:

 

 UK residents , and  those paying community tax,  are the only ones , who should have the choice to vote .

  The rest are just, i have , etc ...

 

I have been faced with this type of thinking in my own country which I vehemently oppose. I am a citizen and as such retain the right to vote. I apologize for stepping in to what is a British policy but as another participating democracy ally I oppose restricting voting rights. Many of the working middle class retired outside our own countries is a result of our being priced out of our own countries. To further punish those fleeing for economic reasons is adding insult to injury (same can be applied to your having your pension raises frozen).

[sotonowl]

People who've decided to live abroad want a say in how their old country is run after 15 years of living in a foreign country, sounds generous to me. The tax would swing it for me, if you pay UK tax then I guess you ought to have a say.

For those whining about the exchange rate i'd suggest that was poor financial planning, you should have got your money out when it was 70 odd baht to the pound. Don't get me wrong, I feel for you guys but trying to blame Brexit for the situation you find yourselves in just doesn't cut it.

What is the argument for letting people who don't live in the UK having a say in tying the UK to the EU? I don't get it. 

[NanLaew]

1 hour ago, billd766 said:

What Is Taxation Without Representation?
Taxation without representation is the act of being taxed by an authority without the benefit of having elected representatives. The term became part of an anti-British slogan when the original 13 American colonies aimed to revolt against the British Empire.

Pretty much the same reason I quit the working in the US under the L1 visa where I was taxed like the next man but didn't have a say on where it went.

[Kalasin Jo]

4 hours ago, NanLaew said:

If the expatriate Briton hasn't cared to maintain his/her legal right to vote at home while gallivanting around the globe, that's entirely their own fault wrought of their own blissful ignorance and a misplaced sense of entitlement. Giving them back the vote that they so cavalierly discarded as irrelevant is a slap in the face of those with the intelligence who appreciated that retaining your voting rights in your birth nation AND HAVE EXERCISED THAT VOTING RIGHT, is a thing of fundamentally great importance.

 

It is only now that the recent rigors of Thai immigration procedural changes and the rubbish exchange rates have conspired with the slowly gathering global economic depression to garner the faltering attention of those woefully and misbegotten short-sighted pseudo-colonials. The chickens are truly coming home to roost but I suggest that the door to the NHS and free bus pass hen house should be boarded up.

 

As for these government-endorsed petitioning platforms, if you are not registered to vote in the UK, then you shouldn't be allowed to sign the bloody things.

Its not a government endorsed platform, it's a parliamentary platform. Not the same thing at all.

[Kalasin Jo]

3 hours ago, CaptainNemo said:

...or forced out of the UK by unprecedented mass immigration pushing up the cost of living, doubling house prices, an emergent police state instigated by new labour, and a rabid extreme left establishment that attacks traditional families and everything that isn't a minority... refusing to pay for it is legal resistence.

How do you know all this if you are not living there? Seems to me right now it is the rabid extreme right that is attempting to destroy values and bring in a police state.