Votes for Britons Living Abroad

OVERSEAS VOTING (Electors) BILL

 At long (very long) last Harry Shindler's quest approaches its goal.  Harry at 96 has for so long been fighting for British Citizens abroad to be recognised by the Westminster Government.  That is to have their Right to a VOTE.  Some years ago he brought a plea before the European Human Rights Court (nothing to do with the EU Court of Justice)  and was refused.  We should also recall that James Preston, a businessman who was living in Madrid in 2012 took a similar case to the Supreme Court in London and there it was also refused.

NOW-  On Friday 23rd February The Overseas Electors Bill  passed the 2nd reading  in the House of Commons. you can read the text from Hansard as under.

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-02-23/debates/9F6393F6-339C-4813-8C24-BDC41623DF10/OverseasElectorsBill

Some members almost filibustered the motion out.  One of these was Sandy Martin MP (Labour) for Ipswich.  He spoke at length about the Frozen Pension situation, where Citizens who have retired to Australia and South Africa and elsewhere (but not the USA or Jamaica) have their State pension frozen. That wrong should most certainly be righted but Mr Martin's speech wandered considerably from the point of the debate which concerns the VOTE, and that alone.

However Mr. Martin spoke at length why Britons abroad should NOT have the vote. He was vehemently opposed to the idea.

Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat) spoke well for the Bill. She observed that all British Citizens abroad are ambassadors (for good or bad) for Britain

Mike Gapes (Labour) spoke volubly in support of the Bill. He is the representative of Labour International in Parliament and represents all those Labour voters abroad who are proudly British.

Sir Roger Gale (Conservative) spoke with passion about Harry Shindler in support of the Bill.

The end of the debate was remarkable.  The Shadow Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in the Commons (Cat Smith), spoke from the Labour front bench. Though she made a veiled support for the principles of the  Bill, she then embarked on what a fellow Labour member (Paul Flynn) called a ‘filibuster’  which would have talked the Bill out of time.  Cat Smith was speaking as for the Labour Party.  But she must have known that by going on so long, the Bill was likely to fail. If it had failed it would have been the Labour Party which kicked it out of touch.

 Geoffrey Clifton Brown  (Cons)  intervened.  He requested  a motion of closure -  But no division took place because the ‘nays’ did not put forward any tellers (those who tally the votes).

The ‘Ayes’ had it, as they say , hands down - more truthfully 'hands up', with shouts of Aye ringing to the rafters.

We await the debate in the forthcoming ‘Committee Stage’  in a month or two. Be prepared to support it, and to lobby the MPs.

Harry Shindler was delighted! He tells me that if the Bill eventually fails because of the tactics of  the Labour Party he will resign his life time membership.  He is the oldest member of the Labour Party. Various members praised Harry for his steadfast campaigning on this matter.

The details of the Bill in its current form can be read here

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/2017-2019/0016/18016.pdf

VOTES FOR LIFE for British Citizens abroad

A call to action.

Many Britons who live abroad feel abandoned by their National Government.  Those who live in the Far East or Africa  have long suffered  a  diminution of their income because the Government refuses to increase their State pension.  Now The Referendum has brought a feeling of this abandonment to Europe, especially to those who have no vote because they moved to Europe more than fifteen years ago. On February 23^rd some progress might be started to put this abandonment of the British Citizen by the British Government into history.  

But you, the reader of this page must take action.

Note that the address of the House of Commons is London SW1A 0AA.

Information of all MPs is located at http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/

Will you write preferably by letter post to one or more MPs.  Especially to Labour MPs?

Let us see why.

If you had the vote….  If you have resided outside the United Kingdom for more than 15 years you won’t have the Vote… but if you had the vote the MPs would be interested in YOU.   But  few MPs are interested. You must make your voice heard.  It benefits no-one to say ‘Why should I vote? I don’t live in Britain.’  I have been writing and blogging for years on this and suddenly Brexit arrives. Perhaps you approve of Brexit, perhaps not.  Perhaps you approve of the State pension being frozen to ordinary elderly retirees in Australia. Whatever. What happens in Westminster most certainly affects you as a British Citizen. Yes it does. You should have a voice. A Vote for Life.  Most Governments in Europe and leading nations in the World recognise their citizens. Britain ignores many.  That includes many of those who are well equipped to be unofficial ambassadors for our once great nation.

Two people are significant players in the action on February 23^rd, Glyn Davies MP and Harry Shindler M.B.E.

Glyn Davies (left) is a Welsh Farmer in Mongomeryshire. He is opening a debate of Votes for Overseas Citizens on February 23^rd.  He has a winning personality – He needs your support.  But not directly.

The second person in this story in Harry Shindler.  I have a great respect for Harry. He is 96 years old and indefatigable. He puts many of us to shame. I and many of us have done so little for our fellow citizens, but Harry has fought for us in war; led the campaign for the Vote and the recognition of British Citizens by our National Government.

 In the last week of January he was phoned at his home in Italy from Westminster. ‘Can you come to meet some MPs in Westminster?’  At his own expense he went. He met various MPs, Labour of course, of which he is a life time supporter, but the invitation was from the Conservative side, many of whom also greatly respect Harry. Harry was there to promote the cause of ‘Votes for Life’.  He met Glyn Davies, he who is our present MP fighter for our Rights, and Chloe Smith M.P., who has responsibility for ‘Votes for Life’.

The situation is that Glyn Davies’ motion is a ‘private members’ motion which always take place on a Friday.  MPs generally skip these because they want to get home to their constituencies, and usually such debates have little importance. But the London Labour MPs have no excuse to scarper to the suburbs.

Glyn’s debate is most important.  If the House of Commons shows that it is important by attending in considerable numbers then it is most likely that the Government will take over the Bill and push it through to victory.  Then we will ALL HAVE the Vote!.

But much depends on you. 

Write to an MP beseeching them to attend the debate on February 23^rd on THE OVERSEAS ELECTORS BILL.

You think you have no MP?  Yes in theory you do, even if you haven’t got a Vote and he/she does not communicate. You can find his/her name from knowing where you last lived.

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

Even if you don’t know, then writing to ‘The MP for *****, House of Commons London, SW1A 0AA, England will get there.  Although an email is something, a postal letter is far more likely to be effective. 

Write like this.  I was a resident in your constituency of *******.     On Friday February 23^rd Glyn Davies MP will open a private members debate on Overseas Electors.  Please, if you possibly can, attend this debate.  It might well be a milestone in British Governmental history.  The course of Electoral law might well change if this Bill succeeds. 

Yours sincerely.

If you are writing to some other MP, not in any manner as a constituent, then omit the first sentence.  The Labour MPs need mostly to be encouraged. And, naturally if you prefer, write more personally

Harry Shindler needs your support.  Please.

Brian Cave

Xenophobia in England after Brexit.

Xenophobia in England

Article translated from the original French- as First Published in Huffington Post January 2018

                     Written by a French Woman returning to France after Brexit.

The removal van doors were closed. One last time we slammed the door of this house which was to be our for ever home, our home for life. It had been chosen after long research, it was enlarged, redecorated entirely. We loved it, it was the first time in our nomadic life that we felt at home, laid down, without the desire to go elsewhere. In fact, we felt at home in England, more than anywhere else. And then the Brexit has arrived.

As I have already said, the brexit was not a vote against Europe, but against the Europeans, it opened the floodgates to a xenophobia of all times that we took as a slap. 10-year-old friends who turn their backs on us, the hate speeches of the government populists, the administrative vexations, the insults of strangers in the street, and the systematic abuse of our rights, our dehumanization by a prime minister who treats us of bargaining chip, of currency of exchange and no longer of human beings. It hurts. The darker future of our children, because their parents had the audacity to be born elsewhere, the closing doors, the flaming racism, the ostracism, the government's insidious apartheid policy, the country which sinks, the crunching nerves, the anguish that settles down to panic attacks at the thought of simply passing the door from home. And nothing. Not a hand stretched, not a single person who stands up to say that it can not last like that. Finally, if we Europeans who still fight to defend our rights certainly, but also a certain idea of ​​England. An idea that day after day, discrimination after discrimination disappears, in the total indifference of the population.

My England was beautiful, funny, welcoming, open, cosmopolitan, tolerant, thoughtful, pragmatic, fair, generous, polite, irreverent, eccentric ... I trusted her completely. Not for a moment could I have imagined that she would sink so low and so fast. My wonderful country has turned into an infamous movement where the one who shouts the strongest wins, a country where bullies rule, xenophobic stalkers. Common sense has disappeared in favor of the worst ideologies, hatred has replaced hospitality, cowardice has taken the place of irony. My dream England may never have finally existed. No more than those friendships that evaporated overnight. No more than that English spirit that I found so free and which was only an illusion. The decor has fallen and it is not nice to see. Racism, obscurantism, moldy colonialism, cowardice, utter contempt for others, ignorance, a feeling of superiority on the whole earth, stupid stupidity ... and yet, it hurts again. Not easy to mourn my lost English illusions. So we leave, for our children, their future, to flee brexitland, because there is nothing for us in this country that pushes us out.

The movers will be tomorrow in front of our new house in France. Before leaving our old English home, they could not retain a last unpleasant reflection, a joke more than limit on the French. They did a lot yesterday thinking that we do not hear them, or maybe we do not understand them, even if we speak to them in English ... given the level of intelligence of these people, it is possible. I become as mean as they are, it's time to leave. Thank you dear assholes with your thoughts to help me not cry. Thank you for reminding me why we are leaving. Without hesitation.