Who needs the Vote most? - The Government? or The Voter?

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On Friday 31^st January 2014 in the House of Lords The EU Referendum Bill – died - but it is far from dead!    What does that mean for us?  Quite a lot!

Your help needed – see below.

Lord Lipsey,  the archetypal ‘we rule – you are ruled’ politician, tabled the motion that the House should  ‘resume’! This arcane procedure meant that the Committee stage of the House debating the Referendum Bill came to an abrupt end and so did the Bill itself!  It is all slightly strange to those unfamiliar with the way ‘our’ government proceeds.

The Bill had a gaping great hole in its construction so far as the Citizen Abroad who lives in other States of the EU are concerned.  Unless the British Citizen had left less than fifteen ago he/she could have no vote in the referendum.  So although their lives could be turned upside down following the possibility of an OUT vote created by the resident British population, they could have no democratic say in the laws and treaties which affect their future, and it seems that most other expatriates are blind to the consequences. We were not to be consulted because ‘they’ rule – n’est-ce pas!

It is frankly tragic that so few citizens abroad in the EU realise the dangerous cliff edge which was appearing in front of them.

But Citizens across the world are also affected, for what affects the Government’s attitude towards the British Citizen in the EU also affects them.

THIS BILL will return effectively in an unchanged form UNLESS the British Citizens abroad DEMAND change! Demand Representation! Demand the Vote! But ‘the rulers have ruled’ from time immemorial, but should this be their attitude?  Should there not be a dialogue?

If the Conservatives win at the next election, Mr. Cameron has made it quite clear that a new Referendum Bill would appear and would be forced through Parliament almost exactly in its present form.

It is my view that a Referendum might have one good outcome.  That is - as long as the result is ‘yes’!   It would lance the festering boil of contention over this issue in Britain, and ensure that Britain is where it should be as a leading nation in Europe. But surely ! any new Referendum Bill should not ignore the British Citizens in  the rest of Europe!  But it most certainly will unless we, the citizens abroad, put aside our distrust of all politicians and say in no uncertain voice - WE WANT TO BE REPRESENTED.   We need to be Represented. We count! We are British Citizens!

A number of members of the Lords spoke well in our interest on Friday. Among these were the Lords Shipley, Bowness, Baroness Quinn, Kerr of Kinlochard, Williams of Elvel,  and others.  I was interested to hear Lord Kinnock refer to the oft-repeated phrase ‘no taxation without representation’ . He was referring to the French residents in Britain but the same could be said of  so many Britons Abroad who by law have to pay tax to the UK! These are the politicians who think differently – their mind set is ‘We rule but we listen to the citizen’ .  “We rule by consent”  They may be unelected peers but quite a few listen to the citizens.

I am quite certain, from personal mails to me, that leading proponents of this Bill, are sympathetic to our cause, but the appalling apparent lack of interest by the expatriate citizen in the political scene, is ruining our position and if we do not stand up now and say WE WANT TO HAVE REPRESENTATION IN THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT then we might well not get it in our lifetime.

The reason why the Politicians are indifferent to us, is because most of us are indifferent towards them!  This must change.

Your help is needed.

We need to publicise in ten Bullet Points why the British Citizen Abroad needs to be represented in the British Parliament.

It is necessary that the needs of the citizen are heard.

BUT ALSO

It is necessary for good Government and the ongoing prestige of Britain that the citizen is consulted. It is in the interest of The Government that ‘we have the vote’!

Send me your thoughts - your list. Covering why the Government needs to represent us as well as why we need this representation.

The final list will be publicised through all the media outlets we can muster.

Now is the hour to stand! For the right to be heard, and the need to listen.

 lefourquet@gmail.com

Hansard report can be read here.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201314/ldhansrd/text/140131-0002.htm

Begin at column 1532 for the amendment 57 on ‘Entitlement to vote in the Referendum’.

With good internet reception you can view the Parliament TV. Recoding at:--

http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=14792.

Begin towards 2.15 p.m.

Profiles of the Lords who spoke can be read here.

http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/lords/

Winter Fuel payment in Europe - Dept of Work & Pensions manipulation of Statistics.

To go to the Index click here

This message has been sent to all members of the Select Committee for Work & Pensions.

From the Campaign for Representation (votes) for Britons Abroad, and
Pensioners Debout! [Stand up!] France.
Look at the end to see what you can do.   This 'tail piece' was not included to the Select Committee members.

The Winter Fuel payment in Europe
The Manipulation of WFP and Temperature statistics by the DWP .

NOTE! ---A resumé of a much larger briefing paper to be viewed here
http://www.lefourquet.net/WFP-RBpaper-V4.pdf   (if the link fails please copy and paste the address to the left in your browser)

July 2011 -  Following a European Union Court of Justice  (CJEU)* judgement which in train confirmed  that ‘old-age benefits’ for eligible British Citizens should be paid across the EU, Iain Duncan-Smith said.

“We will fight these ridiculous EU rules. The Winter Fuel Payment is about helping British pensioners with heating costs and it is ludicrous that we could have to pay more pensioners living in hot countries.”

*http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf;jsessionid=9ea7d2dc30dba4e0f84c4b0945c091cdde9cc21fd65d.e34KaxiLc3qMb40Rch0SaxuMb3z0?text=&docid=107933&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=29792

June 2013 – George Osborne said “…. from the autumn of 2015, we will link the winter fuel payment to a temperature test; people in hot countries will no longer get it”

July 2013 the DWP said “The WFP-Temperature Link  proposal lists 7 countries (Cyprus, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Malta, Portugal and Spain) that will become out of scope for payment of WFP."

The DWP has consulted the Met Office but not the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia from where the temperature data originated. The DWP has used this data supplied by the Met Office to fit its policy. The  paper (available via the above link) details this history thoroughly.

An FoI request to request a view of the actual correspondence between the DWP and the Met Office, has been partially refused, though a copy of the Met Office report to the DWP has been received and can be read here - http://www.lefourquet.net/Report_to_DWP.pdf  [It is 70 pages in size]. (if the link fails - paste address into a browser)
The Met Office  has independently disclosed that they used the CRU data and “ the report provided two temperatures, one to include the French départements d'outre mer (DOMs), and one without. The average winter temperature for France (including the DOM's) is 7.0°C; without DOMs, it is 4.9°C.

The above report details temperature data for the SW region of England and computes an average winter daily temperature of 5.6 degrees C.  This temperature the DWP used as a standard to compare with temperatures of countries in Europe.

The chart below gives these comparisons

But in order to formulate France as  a ‘hot’ country, the DWP report  incorporates the Nov-March temperatures for the tropical French DOMs (Overseas Departments)  - i.e French Guyana, Martinique, Réunion,  and Guadeloupe [officially listed as Outermost Regions of the EU]  into the figures for mainland France. [Similar measures are used for Spain and Portugal.
This was done solely for political reasons – no other.
There is no professional geographer who would classify the DOMs as geographically part of France.
The data published by CRU (available to us) is not in agreement with the Met Office/DWP Report -
e.g for Italy the CRU gives 7.54 degrees C- The Met Office/DWP gives 5.7.- BOTH are above the 5.6 in the DWP report for SW England.  Yet the DWP has classified Italy as 'not hot'.  Statistics have been chosen to fit a policy.

To the left is the isotherm distribution for Europe (January) . The whole of  mainland France lies within the same isotherm distribution range as Britain and so does much of Spain and Italy.

The Outer Hebrides and Belfast lie on the same isotherm as Lyon.
Oddly, both Italy, and Ireland (marginally on the CRU data) have, warmer winter temperatures than SW England yet the DWP do not classify these countries as ‘hot’. Data -for Ireland CRU - 5.64 : Met/DWP  5.5
Why has the DWP  classified France and Spain as ‘hot’ and Italy (and Ireland?) as ‘not hot’? 
With Ireland, the data (from CRU or the MET?) may be related to the delicate political situation. To exclude Britons in Southern Ireland (eg Donegal) whilst retaining those in Northern Ireland would be politically unacceptable.  But there again -- to somehow define Italy as 'not hot' on these confusing set of statistics is a mystery.

Is not the true reason because the number of WFP payments for 2011/2012  are as follows?
Spain  33,815   -  France  18,155   - the two highest in Continental Europe.   The data is manipulated to save money, without consideration of the citizen.

Whilst Ireland has 7155 ,  Cyprus 5420, Portugal 2080, Italy 1425. Greece 1,405, Germany 1220, Malta 1110    ----  All other countries are below 400 each.

Aged British Citizens in straightened financial circumstances, who happen to have chosen to legally reside in other countries of the European Economic Area, recently delighted to have this extra help, would once again be deprived, unless this disgraceful affair is exposed.  These ageing Britons have no political voice, and if it were not for the concern of a very few of the more able of us, the matter would remain hidden.

Brian Cave (lefourquet@orange.fr)  (with acknowledgements to R. Boaden)  www.votes-for-expat-brits.com  http://pensionersdebout.blogspot.com

WHAT YOU CAN DO ----[This version is sent to all activists.]

Dame Anne Begg MP (Chair)	Labour
Debbie Abrahams MP	Labour
Graham Evans MP	Conservative
Sheila Gilmore MP	Labour
Glenda Jackson MP	Labour
Kwasi Kwarteng MP	Conservative
Stephen Lloyd MP	Liberal Democrat
Nigel Mills MP	Conservative
Anne Marie Morris MP	Conservative
Teresa Pearce MP	Labour
Dame Angela Watkinson MP	Conservative

1.  To the left is listed the members of the Select Committee for Work & Pensions.  Clicking in any one will raise a profile and an email address.  You can write as follows, but try to use your own phrases..
"Dear xxxx,  I am not one of your constituents* but I have no other way of stating my views. You will have received information on the manipulation of data by the DWP concerning the suspension of the WFP for people in continental Europe --- Here state your circumstances.  If you are hard up say so.  State the climate where you live. etc etc."

2.   *If you still have an MP, write also to him/her.  You can also claim attention from the MP of the constituency where you were last living in the UK.

3.  Get people to sign this petition [ http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/55085 ]  Few people realise the importance of this.

4.   Circulate this message.

Christmas message from Harry --- who?

A Christmas Message from Harry Shindler*

The right to vote is an important and a basic element in a democratic society.

Men and Women have died to win for us the right to vote. Wars have been fought to win back the right to vote when voting was cancelled by a dictator. There is of course the right to vote in the U.K. – but sadly not for all British Citizens.

Those who decide to reside outside the U.K. and within the European Union, are denied the vote after 15 years.

The campaign by the British Ex-pats, in France, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Cyprus, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, and Italy for the right to vote, with the removal of the 15 year limit, has won the recognition and support of the European Commission.
This note is to all British Ex-pats who have not reached the 15 years limit and hence still have the right to vote.
We, who cannot vote, are appealing to you to use your vote, to register to vote via the Town Hall at your last residence in the U.K.

One of the reasons given for refusing us the vote, is the low percentage of voting by those who can still vote.

VOTING IS IMPORTANT  --- IT IS ONLY WHEN WE LOSE THE VOTE
THAT WE REALISE JUST HOW IMPORTANT!

With every best wish for the New Year !

*Harry Shindler, Italy, December 2013   harryshindler@libero.it  Tel:- 00 39  (0)735658446  -93 years old - Fought to free Italy in the Anzio Beach-head 1944.  Worked tirelessly to commemorate the fallen. Proudly British - Yet... and yet.. and yet agian..  the British Government refuses to recognise his achievements.  All he asks for is to be allowed to vote! We must not let him down.

We would like to join with Harry in this message -
Brian Cave (lefourquet@orange.fr)

  & Graham Richards(graham.richards@orange.fr)

www.votes-for-expat-brits.com

To register to vote---

 link to:- http://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/register_to_vote.aspx

or write to ‘The Electoral Registration Officer’  - at your last known Council Offices –
"“I want to register to vote. Please send me the necessary forms”"
and also sign this petition http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/55085
Circulate to Accumulate.

Ten Points for ACTION

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From the Publicity officer VOTES FOR EXPAT BRITS campaign

Members of the Votes for Expat Brits Campaign Team continue to get asked what can be done to keep promoting the campaign. Here are ten points for consideration:-

• Continue with writing to our last member of member of the House of Commons; http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/

• Write to our last MEP; http://www.europarl.org.uk/en/your_MEPs.html

• Step up writing to both the four quality UK publications plus the many various English language expat publications who already give us both good coverage and support; http://www.world-newspapers.com/

• Continue to promote the various e: Government petitions; 
  Winter Fuel Payment      http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/52121
  BUT FAR MORE IMPORTANT
  REPRESENTATION   http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/55085

• To attend the Viviane Reding, and her fellow Commissioners ,"Citizen Dialogue" meeting road shows across the EU; http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-1080_en.htm?locale=en

• We need to encourage the younger professional/career minded expats and to do that we need to make much more use, "as a matter of priority," of Twitter and Facebook as this is how they normally prefer and like to communicate with each other and not necessarily by the more traditional form of e:mail.

• Make more use of pro active forums like SFN - France. If anybody knows of any others I would very much appreciate receiving details.

• Encourage more people to to set up their own campaign blog sites; http://www.clivewalley.com/292654985 & http://pensionersdebout.blogspot.com/

• We still need to keep networking ourselves and it is essential that we forward all mails to friends/family/friends

• The Electoral Commission is running an online registration and system testing campaign targeting British citizens living overseas in the countries with the highest number of British citizens; Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, UAE & USA. The online campaign will begin in mid February 2014 and it is essential that we boost the registration of the number of overseas voters and get ourselves involved.  

Defenceless people - derided and lampooned

 [To go to Index and start click here.]


This cartoon appeared in the Daily Mail.

You can visit the deplorable original here

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2507657/Mac--winter-fuel.html

A bigoted campaign, driven by the Daily Mail, and some other journals, certain internet forums and joined by shallow minded Politicians is exacerbating antipathy against British pensioners who have chosen to live abroad in Europe and further afield.  It reminds me of the early publicity campaigns in Germany in 1934, which derided and stereotyped innocent Jewish shopkeepers. They were scapegoats for the appalling austerity and inflationary economy of that Nation at that time.
The British pensioner, 70, 80, even 90 years old has little defence against a similar caricature today. Many fought for freedom against the Nazi machine to bring freedom to Europe. 

 See what he is doing now at 92.  Such a man echoes the true spirit of Britain, not the mean minded spirit that oozes from the cartoon.
Read from the following link about this aged man of HONOUR.
Consider again the spite generated against his age group by the Daily Mail and the cartoonist!
Does not your heart sink a little?

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/12/roger-waters-poem-veteran-henry-shindler-father

Throughout Europe and in Britain many active pensioners are volunteers in their communities. In Europe they spread the good qualities of Britishness.  Yet the Daily Mail is seeding and then feeding a hate against them, blaming the austerity on them. I never did imagine that any newspaper in Britain could perpetrate such tawdry yet dangerous rubbish.

One prays that the people of Britain will not be so easily led. But we have evidence enough that shallow bigoted minds even within the Government itself  is tending in that direction.   Read any cheap-minded forum site and you can read comments from residents in Britain damning those of us who have retired - even against those pensioners living in Britain. Their 'free' T.V.s and bus passes.

To the left is a picture of normal life of pensioners in winter in mid France.

We have at present the European Commission to protect us.  But let us be warned, if  Britain pulls out of the European Union, we are not safe from this insidious campaign against us and the distortion of the truth within Britain.
Do not assume that in Europe today your future is safe.  The British Pensioner today lives in mainland Europe because of treaties signed between the UK and the EU.  We can only be sure of our future if these treaties remain firm.   WE MUST be represented. We must take action.
The pensioners must Stand UP! and be counted -  They must not be so dishonoured.

What you and your friends can do...and what you do WILL make a difference

• Add your name to this petition - It demonstrates your need to be heard. If you do not speak out, no-one can listen and no-one knows what you feel.  --  http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/55085
  

• YOUR voice must be heard where it matters -
  
• Circulate to a politician, your own one, one you know,..., ·  http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps
• Where you read prejudice on a forum or other site, speak out against it.