France is considering new M.P's for its ex-pats and I am wondering what the SFN community thinks of this idea for British ex-pats?

The Today programme held an interview this morning between Brian Cave, a British ex-pat living in France and the Labour peer, Lord Lipsey.

I was appalled to listen to how badly prepared Lord Lipsey was before he came to this discussion.

He stated categorically that Mr. Cave should not have an ex-pat M.P because he did not pay tax in the UK.

Mr Cave was a teacher and has a civil service pension which is automatically taxed in the UK, as is all income from the rental of properties in UK owned by ex-pats.

He also stated that because ex-pats do not pay VAT, we should not have an ex-pat MP.

Our SIPP is governed by the rules imposed by the UK Government and when we order goods on-line from UK, we all pay VAT.

Another reason Lord Lipsey stated was that the UK is trying to reduce the amount of M.P.'s and this  proposal would increase their number.

Should we be better represented in the country of our nationality? After all ex-pats have particular concerns and I think that this would be an excellent idea and as Lord Lipsey ably demonstrated, it seems that we are not being taken seriously  be our ruling classes.

You can contact Lord Lipsey via "Write to them" on the net.