Votes for Life – Campaigning with New Europeans & European Movement UK on Voting Rights for all UK Expatriates

Parliamentary petition to Implement Votes for Life legislation before EU referendum

We have been supporting the campaign by Votes for Expat Brits to remove this limit for many months. Through the efforts of people such as 91 year old Harry Schindler a commitment has been secured from the Conservative party to remove this iniquitous limit.

Bizarrely the Government has said that the change will not be made before the EU Referendum. The bid to reverse this illogical decision has received two significant boosts.

Firstly, we have agreed on a joint effort with New Europeans for the removal of the 15 year limit which will combine promoting the petition alongside a questionnaire being run by New Europeans on the importance of voting rights for all UK expatriates including those who have been out of the UK for more than 15 years.

You can find the survey on the New Europeans site New Europeans – Expatriates & the 15 year rule

Secondly, the European Movement UK adopted a motion at its Annual General Meeting that:

“European Movement will actively campaign for the removal, at the earliest possible date and certainly before the EU Referendum, of the 15 year restriction on the voting rights of UK Citizens resident outside the UK.”

Sadly implacable opposition from the Labour Party  as confirmed by the Labour Peer Baroness Morgan of Ely in the House of Lords a few days ago, makes the implementation of this change difficult –

“We believe that there should be a cut-off point when people should lose their entitlement to vote if they have made their home abroad. We think that the current cut-off point of 15 years is about right. However, let me make it absolutely clear that there is no inconsistency in Labour’s position on this. The Conservative Government have said clearly that they want to see this extended. It is in their manifesto. They want British citizens who move abroad to be able to vote for ever. We do not believe that. When that Bill comes before this House we will oppose it.”

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Votes for Life – Petitioning Parliament to remove 15yr limit on Democracy for UK Citizens

Petitioning Parliament – Implement Votes for Life legislation before EU referendum

It is estimated that of the 5 million UK citizens of voting age who live outside the UK, 1 million are disenfranchised by the current 15 year limit on being able to vote.

This arbitrary limit denies these people the opportunity to participate in the democratic process, and for those living in the rest of the EU it effectively penalises them for exercising their right to Freedom of Movement.

At this particular time the limit is even more iniquitous than usual as it denies those people a right to vote in the EU Referendum, an event that may have a profound effect on the rights of all UK Citizens.

The current government acknowledges the arbitrary nature of the limit and has committed to removing the 15 year limit but has said that it will not be removed prior to the EU Referendum.

We are challenging this on behalf of all UK expatriates with a new Parliamentary petition asking that the “Votes for Life” legislation is implemented before any EU Referendum.

Once we have 10,000 supporters we will get a written response from the Government and with 100,000 supporters it will be put forward to be debated in Parliament.

As well as supporting this petition it is vital that all UK Citizens who are entitled to vote register to do so and actually use their vote when the time comes.

Posted in expatriates, referendum, VotesforLife, voting | Tagged , , ,

Why won’t the EUphobes set out their alternative to the UK’s EU membership?

When anybody in favour of remaining in the EU points out the benefits that their group, profession, sector gets from the UK’s membership, there are only 3 reasonable responses from the EUphobe groups:

1) here is how and why you will still be able to receive the support, finance etc after the UK leaves the EU;

2) that’s a pity for your group/sector/business but we believe the overall benefits for the UK outweigh the losses some might suffer;

3) hard luck, you’ve done well enough for long enough. You’ll just have to find some other way of generating income or do something else.

The EUphobes seem to prefer to ignore the concerns of these groups/sectors/individuals and accuse them of bias and vested interest.

They seem to have no interest in setting out the consequences of a Brexit and exactly what they will put in place instead of the arrangements we have with a through the UK’s EU membership.

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No Two stage EU referendum – David Cameron

David Cameron has signaled that there won’t be a 2 stage referendum process.

Some people had been saying that we should have two referendums on leaving the EU.

The first would be to decide whether we should start the process and the second would be after the exit negotiations to decide whether we thought leaving the EU, and all that goes with that, was a better option than staying in.

This notion has support from Dominic Cummings and also Boris Johnson, the premise seems to be that by voting “Leave” in the first referendum it will in some way give the UK a stronger negotiating position to get a better deal on the UK’s EU membership , a second referendum will give the UK voters an opportunity to Remain in the EU based on the revised terms.

David Cameron has said quite clearly that if the UK public votes to leave the EU the UK leaves, if it votes to Remain the UK remains. No ifs, buts or maybes – what we decide in THE referendum is what will happen.

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No to the Norway option – Remain, Leave & Government agree!

David Cameron has said that the “Norway option” for the UK’s relationship with the EU post-Brexit is a non-starter.

Norway is a member of European Free Trade Association which with the EU forms the European Economic Area.

It has long been the case that one of the options for the UK post Brexit put forward by some EUphobe Leave campaigners is to join EFTA and therefore have access to the EU markets on the same basis as Norway.

Via the EEA Norway has access to the EU market. As a consequence Norway has to adopt a great deal of EU legislation and is bound by the principles of the four freedoms – goods, services, capital and people. This is often referred to as the Norway “fax democracy” as they little option but to wait until the latest regulations are faxed through from the EU for the Norwegian Parliament to implement.

As well as being bound by the majority of EU legislation Norway also has to make a significant financial contribution to the EU in return for having unfettered access to the EU market. The contribution per Norwegian citizen is around 80-90% of what each UK citizen pays.

The “Norway option” does nothing to address the principle concerns of the EUphobe Leave campaigners: it doesn’t reduce the so-called regulatory burden, does nothing for the freedom of movement concerns they have and makes a small cost reduction in exchange for giving up the influence we currently have in the development of the EU.

It seems the Leave campaigners, or at least some of them, agree-:

“The ‘Norway option’ is not @VoteLeave’s policy nor will it be because a) we can do much better than that & b) we plan to win referendum” in a Tweet from @odysseanproject – the Twitter account linked to Dominic Cummings blog.

This is welcome news, we can all agree that the “Norway solution” is not an option for the UK.

But we are still left wondering what the EUphobe Leave campaigners are planning for the UK in place of the EU.

Posted in brexit, Norway, post-Brexit | Tagged , , ,

We didn’t sign up to a political union – Myth

Harold Wilson, the then Prime Minister, made it quite clear when reporting to Parliament on the UK application to join the EEC that it was made for political and economic reasons.
“But whatever the economic arguments, the House will realise that, as I have repeatedly made clear, the Government’s purpose derives, above all, from our recognition that Europe is now faced with the opportunity of a great move forward in political unity and that we can — and indeed must — play our full part in it.” – Harold Wilson to the House of Commons 2nd May 1967 from Hansard.
Posted in EU, myths | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Brexit: Nothing More Than A Contemporary Mode – Part 2

Following on from his previous post https://sayyes2europe.eu/2015/10/10/brexit-nothing-more-than-a-contemporary-mode/ Dave Matthews continues to explore the questions about what happens in the event of a Brexit.

There are some huge questions being bandied around the UK and Europe at the moment, concerning our presence and access to the Single Market after an Exit from the EU. Being part of the Single Market entitles UK Citizens to many individual benefits. (See link for more information: http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/).

However, the question we should pose to many Anti-EU campaigners is where will these rights be, if we are not able to join the Single Market?

If we are allowed to re-join the EEA, how long will re-entering the Single Market take?

These questions are all disputed, and with this in mind let’s take a look at a few of the actual facts about exiting the EU:

  1. Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty explains that if a member wishes to leave the existing regulations will cease to apply two years after giving notice, unless the exit agreement says otherwise. But any exit agreement is subject to a majority vote from the other member states. In other words unless continuance of the trade agreements and citizens rights are included in any exit agreement it will be as if they never existed.
  2. Re-joining the Single Market and Digital Single Market will mean paying 80% of the EU fees but with no say in any future agreements.
  3. Having no access to the Single Market and Digital Single Market would mean starting from scratch with everything, relying on Chinese and American business, renegotiating from scratch with 27 European countries and all in all decreasing the value of our citizens by making them work more to fill the giant gap created in the economy
  4. Leaving the EU will result in the 27 members voting on a deal for the UK concerning economic implications. This debate has to work in favour of the EU and not necessarily in the UK’s favour.
  5. If the UK decides to restrict employment and residency rights of EU/EEA migrants. The EU will do the same to Britain.
  6. Leaving the EU will mean EU immigration force tactics won’t apply to the UK, therefore permit France to allow refugees to board trains and ferries to the UK.
  7. Stress levels amongst pensioners already living abroad, or in the process of retiring abroad are high, due to the uncertainty of a Brexit. Very unfair, and shows aspects of not looking after our own.
  8. Pensioners and Expats who are already abroad are becoming apprehensive about what will happen to their pensions after a Brexit as there are so many unanswered questions.
  9. Leaving the EU will cause huge problems for academics and scientists who are currently fully involved in cross-border programmes funded by a common EU pot.
  10. No other country in the EU has voiced their efforts to leave the EU as much as Britain. The continent’s general consensus is satisfied with the overall European procedures.

After reviewing many of the anti-arguments for an EU Exit. It all really comes down to the fact that some of our media has been representing the EU in a very bad light. In recent years we have become the most anti-EU country in Europe simply because the benefits of membership have never been passionately or effectively voiced. The fact is we do not know what will happen after a Brexit, whether our European rights will slowly disappear or if we will flourish as a county and regain everything we had before. These are all pending questions that have not been answered answered. Leaving would really be a giant leap into the unknown.

What people in the Remain campaign have on their side are solid facts. We know what will happen if we remain in the EU. Exactly what is happening now, bar a few renegotiations on Cameron’s part, and such things as the abolition of roaming charges in 2017.

If we leave we put so much at stake and cause stress and anxiety to millions of people in the UK and abroad, so what really is the point in leaving?

Dave Matthews, Vienna

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Brexit: Nothing More Than A Contemporary Mode.

Every day we read that the Exit Campaigns are gaining presence, that their voice is finally being heard. That the UK public are standing up to an undemocratic union, a fascist movement, a money swallower. Eurocrats are being branded as liars, and thieves by the Exit parade. But isn’t all of this just becoming a bit odd?

Leave.eu is gaining popularity and pumping its iron together with UKIP campaigning thoroughly for an EU exit. They are persistent, know nothing more or less than the average UK Citizen but brand themselves as something superior and something that has some sort insider knowledge. What Leave.eu have on their side is money and power. They are merchandising, commenting and thanking flamboyantly on the status pages of anyone who gives them attention, regardless of how xenophobic or placid the comment may be, turning their cause into a type of vogue, something that needs to be seen and heard by millions, something that has the edge and is the right thing to do.

It’s almost a sort of good cop, bad cop approach.

It is safe to say that these types of efforts are being rewarded by people. It shows absolute dedication to the cause and the most dubious thing about all of this is that; people are actually falling for it.

The average Anti-EU Brit who’s sat down the pub wants to hear one thing at the moment, that the EU is failing and the project is over. He is absorbed in the conversation that Johnny Foreigner will take his job, turn his country in to an Islamic state, that Europe wants to abolish the pound and make us all Europeans, that we are being restricted by foreign trade agreements, foreign policy and legislation all because of this evil union…Scary stuff for an average person.

But what he or she is forgetting are the other important issues at stake. The EU is about so much more than just ‘trade agreements’. On every Anti-EU forum you hear comments beginning with “trade this and trade that”, that we are undermining our ability, we are being locked into something evil, something not worth our time and that trade and only trade is the most important thing at stake.

But is trade really the be all and end all of this argument? The answer of course is no. People are forgetting the fundamental rights that the EU brings. Rights that are being undervalued. Rights which concern every citizen of the European Union consisting of: travel, work and retirement, vehicles and transport, residence formalities, education and youth, health, family and consumers. (See link for more information: http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/).

Dave Matthews, Vienna.

Dave explores the questions that a Brexit raises further in a second post https://sayyes2europe.eu/2015/10/11/brexit-nothing-more-than-a-contemporary-mode-part-2/

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Ever Closer Union of People – not Nations – but what comes next is the most important.

One of the things that is often forgotten when talking about the Treaty of Rome, the keystone of the European Union, is what comes after the phrase “determined to lay the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe”.

That phrase is in itself an important statement about what the EU stands for.

But it is not, as it is often corrupted to be by both Europhiles and Eurosceptics, talking about an ever closer union of the nations in the EU, it quite explicitly refers to the peoples of Europe and not the nations.

Nor is it an overriding principle. You have to take into account what is said next in the Treaty:

“affirming as the essential objective of their efforts the constant improvements of the living and working conditions of their peoples,”

Our political leaders/representatives need to bear in mind the word “essential”, in case they have forgotten, as some of them seem to have done, that word means extremely important, absolutely necessary.

What the EU needs to be doing at the moment are those things that are “extremely important, absolutely necessary” for the peoples of the EU.

If that causes some pain and difficulty for the leaders and governments of the EU they will have to deal with it,

It is “the peoples of Europe” that the EU was founded for, the leaders and governments need to remember that and step up to the challenge.

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The soft peace is just as important as the hard peace

We, on the yes side of the debate, the commonsense, modern, forward thinking side of the debate, are ourselves far too divided and far too focused on the economic arguments for staying in (overwhelming though they are).

The key is far stronger than that. This is about the rebuilding of our Continent in a different way, where the soft peace is guaranteed because we all sit at the same table work together and have a say in each others affairs.

NATO does the hard peace, the EU does the soft peace in Europe. Originally to bind (West) Germany and Italy into a new democratic Europe, the EU has gone much further.

In my lifetime, Greece Spain and Portugal have moved form being military dictatorships to modern free market democratic states.

After 1990, the EU welcomed the former Soviet satellite states back into the European family, which the UK in particular rightly pushed for. They too are now democratic free market states. True, they still have a way to go, but these things take time.

What an act of utter betrayal of those countries to walk out on them now.

Jeremy, Sheffield, England

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