I don’t know the size of the British population outside the UK, and how big of a problem this would be.
I honestly don’t know where the line should be drawn though.
Kind of feel like if you have dual citizenship, you should only be allowed to vote in one country.
Kind of feel like if you haven’t lived in your native country for more than a decade, you probably shouldn’t be voting for anything more than a national election like voting for US President… but not being from the UK, I’m not sure if there is any such votes; if I recall correctly, the party with the most MPs gets to choose Prime Minister? Voting in anything regional would just seem odd.
But then again, allowing that national vote is how you end up with Turkey, Erdogan and the value of the Turkish Lira.
Tough problem, good luck UK.
I managed to end up in a sort of grey area where I’m a UK citizen, and I still have money and other interests in the UK, and I still go back regularly, but I’m also a permanent resident overseas, so I haven’t been allowed to vote anywhere for a couple of years. So it’s nice to get that back.
As I said in another comment, I also fully intend to use it to help bury the Tories lol.
The cynic in me wonders if this is just another desperate attempt by the Tories to grab some previously unattainable votes.
If you’ve been outside the country longer your likely older. If you’ve been outside the country longer…and are older, you’ve probably got a few quid. If you’re older and you’ve got a few quid you likely vote Blue…
I mean, it’s not gonna matter right, but still. Cynical.
Um, what? I still have British citizenship. I’m definitely not voting Tory. Do I have to visit my local Consulate? I feel like I should do this just to say that I have
The Tories really are pulling out all the stops
But why? The cut-off was already very generous at 15 years. How can you live outside of a country for that long and still want to have your views represented?
Because this war veteran who didn’t know what on earth he was fighting for (apparently to bring votes to Europe?) shamed the government into reversing the decision.
The change follows a long campaign by World War Two veteran Harry Shindler, who left the UK to live in Italy around 40 years ago.
Speaking to the BBC in 2011, he said: “There was a war to bring the vote to the people of Europe. We won the war, but some of the people who took part in the war, me included, are not allowed to vote themselves.”
In 2021, he welcomed the news that the government was changing the rules calling it an “important day for freedom”.
I agree 15 years is more than plenty and I suspect the reason is purely down to how this will benefit the current party in power. It’s also cynically timed close enough to the election that reversing it would seem petty.
