Great! /s
My wife has lived in the UK for 20 years on an EU passport, she was 12 when she moved here, she is directly impacted by general elections as are all of us who live in the UK. This is the first year she can vote in one of these elections because we finally scrapped the money together to apply for her citizenship.
How does someone who has not lived in the country for 50 years have more of a say than the people living here. It doesn’t make sense.
The article focuses on 70+ year olds who have lived in another country for over 50% of their lives. If you have not lived in the UK for 40 or 50 years, and you intend to continue not living in the UK, then please get back in your box. 🙏
Tbh, if you’re over 70 you should probably lose your right to have a say about things that will only come to pass after you’re dead. Just one opinion, ymmv.
Some people live to 90-100, you should be allowed to vote when you’re going to live for that much longer.
I semi-seriously believe that you should get more votes if you’re younger, or a more heavily weighted vote, based on the average expected number of decades you have left to live. Like, e.g., an eighteen year-old ought to live for roughly another six decades, so their vote should be weighted to take that into account. And I say this as a thirty-[mumble] year-old! Eighteen year-olds should have more of a say than I do, because they’re going to be affected by the decisions made now for much longer than I am.
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Fucking hell. Just what we need, more reality disconnected voters.
“I still feel British so I should get to decide how people in Britain live. I mean does it really matter if the NHS gets privatized as long as my pension gets bigger so I can afford my lavish lifestyle. I care so much about my country just not quite enough to live there.”
Clearly a way to get more older people votitwho are more likely to vote Tory.
This reminds me of my wife’s parents. They voted pro Brexit - despite all warnings - eventually realised it’s going to be shite, retired and moved abroad. Not an option for my wife’s other three siblings though. They don’t have dual citisenship. My wife and I only got married so she can live outside of GB in any EU country. Smh.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Around two million British citizens who have been living abroad for more than 15 years can now vote in UK general elections, following a rule change by the Conservative government.
BBC News asked four expats if they will cast their ballots.“I deserve to have a say in what’s going on,” 76-year-old Valerie Stacey says from her home in central Madrid.
The former English teacher is one of the 100,000 British citizens based overseas for more than 15 years who have already applied to vote, external following the change in rules.
They can apply online to vote by post, by proxy, or in person if they are in the country on 4 July.Although she has lived in Spain since the early 1980s, Valerie has strong views on the NHS and social care in the UK.
Jim made the grassland plains between Northern Victoria and New South Wales his home following a backpacking holiday in 2006, and despite taking a keen interest in British politics, does not intend to return to the UK.
It argued that 15 years was a “reasonable and proportionate amount of time for someone to retain a vote” and said the rule change would make it easier for wealthy donors who have not lived in the UK for decades to contribute.The Conservative government said that British citizens overseas retain deep ties to their country, external, and are affected by policy decisions in areas like immigration, defence or pensions.Others, like Belgium-based Daniel Allingham feel conflicted about having a right to vote in an election which will not directly impact them.
The original article contains 826 words, the summary contains 261 words. Saved 68%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
As UK citiziens, they are impacted by decisions that affect UK citizens, even citizens living abroad. Most obviously Brexit, but it’s not difficult to see that there might be other decisions, e.g., around tax and benefits, that would affect them. I know various people with up to three different citizenships and they can vote in all three of those countries, for this exact reason.
Obviously the real reason the Tories have allowed this is totally cynical, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a non-cynical argument for it.
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