Another illustration by Vote Leave of why BREXIT is not a cost free option

Why oh why, does Vote Leave seem unable to put up a single relevant factual argument?  Perhaps we all know the answer.  But you would think a Government Minister could make a better fist of explaining her case than Priti Patel did on the radio this morning.  It wasn’t altogether easy to understand her argument, such was the torrent of words and lack of concrete examples, mixed with a couple of preposterous statements that I suspect even her fellow cabinet outers would not support, but her contention seems to be this.

British small business – an important part of the economy –  is being held back by EU regulations.  Were these to be abandoned small business would leap forward unleashing prosperity for all. Big business can look after itself in Brussels but small business has few defenders and those few are constantly outvoted in the European Parliament and elsewhere.

Priti Patel, who is Employment Minister, denied that the removal of such regulations would make it any harder for small businesses to export to Europe and for good measure she also denied that the EU had played any part in developing the rights of workers.  Such protections that workers have now have all been the result of the actions of the British Parliament, she asserted.   An odd thing to say: if she doesn’t know the role of the EU in securing equal pay or maternity rights why should we believe she knows about small business?

She was pressed to identify which regulations were causing this terrible burden.  I can’t remember the precise word she used but ‘endless’ would seem to fit the bill. There were so many that it was pointless to identify them all (though she did exclude those relating to Climate Change and the Working Time Directive). Others would be subject to an audit by a post Brexit government and would be scrapped or modified or replaced by 100 per cent British regulations dreamt up in her own department.  Naturally there was no mention of the cost of this process, or who would be consulted, or the length of time this might take or what the results might be.   Auditing every EU regulation that affected small business hardly seems a cost free option: it could even cost more than the money saved, meanwhile reducing protection for customers and the environment.

At last Ms Patel agreed that packaging would be one set of regulations to be examined, though it wasn’t clear whether the packaging included labelling and related to food as well as other substances.  But a moment’s reflection suggests that regardless of the size of company, packaging and labelling have important implications for consumer safety.  It must also be the case that the number of potentially hazardous substances or equipment is legion and therefore that the scope to change existing regulations would at best be marginal.

So this seems yet another example of thinking whose woolliness would not disgrace a mammoth.  Uncosted and unthought through. Another illustration of why Brexit is not a cost free option.

Thanks to Peter Sain ley Berry a member of the SY2e – Remain in the EU alliance of groups

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Foreign Office urges British residents to register to vote in EU Referendum

News release – 29 April 2016 More than 1000 expats per day in Spain are going online to the UK government webpage  www.gov.uk/register-to-vote where Brits can register to vote in the EU refer…

Source: Foreign Office urges British residents to register to vote in EU Referendum

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The Brexiteers economist says Leaving the EU will “mostly eliminate manufacturing” in the UK

Eliminate UK manufacturing

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Another(not so) long term servant of the Leave movement.

Priti Patels hypocrisy

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Lawyers vow to fight on as High Court rejects Brexit challenge by disenfranchised expatriates

Press Release from Leigh Day regarding the High Court appeal against the exclusion of expatriates from the EU Referendum franchise.

28 April 2016

Lawyers vow to fight on after High Court rejects Brexit challenge

Lawyers acting for two British citizens fighting a legal battle for the right to vote in the EU Referendum have confirmed they will seek leave to appeal direct to the Supreme Court against the judgment by two High Court judges rejecting their challenge.

The High Court hearing into the rights of up to 2 million Britons in Europe to vote in the EU referendum took place on Wednesday 20th April 2016.  The case was taken by 94-year-old Harry Shindler, a Second World War veteran who lives in Italy, and lawyer and Belgian resident Jacquelyn MacLennan.

Lawyers for the two argued that under the EU Referendum Act 2015 they are being unlawfully denied the right to vote on the UK’s continued membership of the EU as the legislation excludes British people who have lived elsewhere in the European Union for more than 15 years, from voting in June.

They told the Court that if the vote in June is to leave the EU then all British citizens will lose their status as EU citizens.  This means that those British citizens living outside the UK but in the EU will become “resident aliens” living and working abroad under sufferance rather than by right and no longer able to claim the protections of EU law .

The Court also heard arguments that the ’15 year rule’ acted as a  penalty against British citizens for having exercised their free movement rights.  The rule prevented them from participating in a democratic process, the result of which might bring to an end the very EU law rights on which they rely and base their working and private lives every day.

However Lord Justice Lloyd Jones and Mr. Justice Blake stated in today’s ruling that they accepted the Government’s claims that there were:  “…significant practical difficulties about adopting especially for this referendum a new electoral register which includes non-resident British citizens whose last residence the United Kingdom was more than 15 years ago.” [Para 57]

They continued: “In our view, Parliament could legitimately take the view that electors who satisfy the test of closeness of connection set by the 15 year rule form an appropriate group to vote on the question whether the United Kingdom should remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union.” [Para 58]

Following the judgment Richard Stein, the lawyer from Leigh Day representing the claimants, said: “We are obviously disappointed that the High Court has denied us the opportunity to challenge the decision by the Government to exclude British citizens from the EU referendum.

“We now intend to take the legal battle to the Supreme Court, the highest Court in the country, so that all British citizens living elsewhere in the EU can be part of the democratic process to vote in this referendum which will have a very real impact on their lives.

“We believe that there is precedent for fast track legislation being put through Parliament in a matter of days in response to court judgment, so  there would be no need for the referendum to be delayed if the Supreme Court rules in our favour.

“Since this is a vote in a referendum rather than in an election there is no need to link the votes of Britons in Europe to any particular constituency in the UK.   Possession of a British passport should be enough.”

In response to the judgment, Jacquelyn MacLennan said: “The Government made a manifesto commitment to enfranchise all British citizens, no matter how long they have been abroad saying that they thought that “choosing 15 years, as opposed to 14 or 16 years, is inherently like sticking a dart in a dartboard” and that “if British citizens maintain British citizenship that brings with it rights, obligations and a connection with this country, and that that should endure.”.   We just want the Government to keep its promises.”

-ENDS-

Notes

 

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Judgement expected today on expatriates High Court appeal on EU Referendum franchise

Press Release from Leigh Day regarding the High Court appeal against the exclusion of expatriates from the EU Referendum franchise.

We expect the judgment from the hearing in the case below to be handed down at the High Court tomorrow at 0930. We have not yet had the listing for tomorrow and so do not yet know which Court this will take place –  normally it is posted online here from approx. 2pm today

Original release posted 22 April:

Lawyers acting for two British citizens who are fighting for a legal battle for the right to vote in the EU Referendum are now awaiting the judgment after two judges heard the arguments for British citizens, who have lived in other EU member states outside the UK for over 15 years, to join the vote.

A High Court hearing into the rights of up to 2 million Britons in Europe to vote in the EU referendum took place on Wednesday 20th April 2016. Leigh Day is acting on behalf of 94-year-old Harry Shindler, a Second World War veteran who lives in Italy, and lawyer and Belgian resident Jacquelyn MacLennan.

Both claim that under the EU Referendum Act 2015 they are being unlawfully denied the right to vote on the UK’s continued membership of the EU.

Leigh Day requested the urgent hearing at which two judges at the High Court in London heard arguments against legislation that excludes British people living in the European Union, but outside the UK for more than 15 years, from voting in June.

Jacquelyn MacLennan, one of the claimants, as well as Charlotte Oliver, an English lawyer based in Rome who runs her own practice in the Italian Capital and supports the legal action being taken attended the hearing.

Leigh Day, have expressed the wish for fast track legislation to be put through Parliament so that the referendum should not be delayed.

Despite the Conservative 2015 manifesto including the pledge to introduce votes for life, scrapping the rule that bars British citizens who have lived abroad for more than 15 years from voting, the UK government have not proposed any legislation to reverse this ‘undemocratic’ rule ahead of this Summer’s crucial vote on whether the United Kingdom remains in the EU.

At the hearing lawyers for the claimants argued that excluding British citizens who have lived elsewhere in the EU for more than 15 years acts as a disincentive from, and a penalty for, their exercising their free movement rights. It also prevents them from participating in a democratic process, the result of which might bring to an end the very EU law rights on which they rely and base their working lives.

According to lawyers for the claimants, the judicial review of the legislation, if successful, should require the Government to rush through amending legislation to change the franchise for the forthcoming referendum in June 2016.

They claim there is precedent for such fast track legislation going through Parliament in a matter of days. They point to the the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014 which received Royal Assent on 17 July 2014, having been introduced before Parliament just three days before, on 14 July 2014, in response to a European Court decision that declared the Data Retention Directive to be invalid.

Before the hearing Richard Stein, the lawyer from Leigh Day representing the claimants, said: “We believe that the Government has the time now to amend the franchise and empower the many British people who have lived outside the UK for over 15 years who want to vote on decisions which will have a very real impact on their lives.

“This legal action should not delay the referendum, the Government should instead stand by its promises and give a ‘vote for life’ to British citizens.”

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As a leading member of the EU the UK can thrive and not just survive.

Thrive not Survive

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Plain Tales from the EU – How living in the EU has benefited me.

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You Can Say Yes to the UK Remaining in the EU

Thanks to Cags & The Cheese

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