That was my initial thought, but if you read Brian's post you will see that he is proposing that we start the process of allowing all ex-pats who have permanent residence to be able to vote in the country where they live.
Having thought about this, I still think that a proposal to provide specific M.P.'s for ex-pats is more likely to succeed as there is an obvious answer to asking to vote in the your country of residence and that is to take up that nationality.
There are at the moment proposals which will need anyone wanting to take up French nationality needing to speak french up to age level 15 and study french history. I have no problem with that, but I can see that for many older people, who are financially dependant on the UK, that could be quite difficult.
There are specific problems for ex-pats, from wherever they come or go to live, and I think that having M.P.'s dedicated to ex-pat voters would mean that these problems would be more readily addressed, rather than being lost in the postbags of the M.P.'s in the constituency where you were last registered to vote.
In general terms an expatriate can live in a host country only if it is acceptable to the host country [consider Russia, Thailand etc.] . But- the EU has Europe wide treaties which enable Britons to move and live freely within the EU. The British expatriate would find life possibly difficult if these treaties were to change or collapse. These treaties are vital to us. We ought to have some procedure of consultation if changes are proposed.
My special concern is for the 450,000 British pensioners who are resident in mainland Europe.
If a referendum were to come about then those who have no representation at Westminster, would have very small voices in this debate. The resident population might well vote us out. In that case, as an indication, you would say goodbye to health care provision. Limitations could be placed arbitrarily on your banking services. Even now! -Try opening a new bank account in Britain - without a UK address it is almost impossible.
The expatriate is disadvantaged in various ways. A correction of this situation is likely to be only even looked at if we had some form of representation. We are ignored by the British Government. Being ignored and without representation means they can pass laws which are not in our interest with impunity, we have no 'come back'. We have no voice.
No, read the whole chain and see that an emergent majority wish to petition UK MPs for an initiative to get votes for EU citizens in whichever country they reside in, in this case it is (mainly, I think) UK citizens in France who wish to vote here. However, since your question arose, we shall need to latch on to other networks, blogs, etc to get people wherever they are and from to support it and especially try to get 100,000 UK expat and redient signatures. Clearer, I hope.
Erm, the French initiatives obviously targets French expats and they are concerned by the French proposal. The petition is for an MP-expat in the UK, which had recently had it's elections?
I agree with Johnny and others about wanting a say in the country where I live. It annoys the heck out of me that I don't get to vote in all the elections here - makes me feel as if I'm not trusted enough to be given all my rights.
I no longer have an address or an income in the UK, and I don't really feel I have the right to vote there. However, I do understand the feelings of people who receive pensions etc from and have to pay taxes in the UK. Perhaps expats would benefit from having some kind of representation in their 'home' country, but for me the main thing is to be able to participate in the politics of the country I live in. I'll sign a petition!
Now, whose railings could I chain myself to. . . ?
No, start now and let it run through the election period since there is nothing to be gained politically right now. Hollande will hardly be a big change, so do not expect anything from his government.
I tend to agree with Johnny's thoughts on the country where one lives and suspect that James may be right about the 100,000 but that does not mean not trying.
I have the vaguest memory because my life was hectic. I asked my sister on FB and what she remembers is that one of her people (she owned a domestic cleaning agency in those days) did the Dolenz house but no others in the street. Even then she cannot remember whether they were 18 or 22. My nephew was always in trouble with one man, perhaps the said landlord, but ours was owned or managed by an agency in Wimbledon which where we found it. Yeah, strange mixed street on the surface but it was a mirror of the place I had in Berlin next to a hospital so that we had paupers and famous surgeons, so as to say, side by side.
I vaguely remember something on the street signs with the former name and there are always exceptions to numbering for historic reasons, so I'll run with that. Hislop frequently came along Trinity Crescent when cycling to Greek Street to Private Eye's office, though I cannot imagine why, and I occasionally met him coming back fromIslington where I was on the board of a charity and showed my face as often as possible. So my fleeting memory there is of puffy, panty political chit-chat and commenting about women going through the various bits of Clapham and Balham. He, all 2ft 3 ins of him, fancied himself with the ladies. Tactically, sis and I lived there as a safe enough distance from our parents but close enough to get there in 10 mins near South Wimbledon tube and that was really it for us.
I think that may be wrong. The numbering starts at Trinity Road in fact and the street was originally called someting else. Evens are on the south side of the road. We were No 7 on the N side. Opposite you when I last knew were Charlie Pumphrey a heart specialist (mine briefly!). Then there were also some lock up garages behind a house that had been divided into flats. It was (may be is) a good street with a mix and a good place to bring up children as there were lots in the street when we were there. The scouuge of the street was a landlord of various flats who attacked me with an iron bar one day when I took a pic of him cutting down a protected tree. The court case made the front page of The Times! "Tooting man's £3000 tree"- the size of his fine which I believe he did not pay and the property was repossessed! I'm a mine of information!
Good memory, as I put it in the other place found the number and it was 20 in fact... Yes, definitely red brick but a gravel bed behind a low wall in front.
Found it, we were 20. Dolenz was next door on our left if you looked at the house face on, so logically 18 given that would be cebtre of London direction which is how numbering works.
Brian's idea of having a petition asking for decisive action to influence whether EU citizens should have universal electoral rights in their country of residence within the 27 member states would neither impinge on any proposed national legislation (no excuse for them to respond 'wait and see what happens here first') nor offend any single nation on the principle of that state having 'better' or 'different' to others and would push whoever to act as representation of a nation state or the EU itself on behalf of all citizens without bias toward any single nation, seems to be the preferred way to go.
I am happy with that, they all just say open your bank account and let us help ourselves!
Hear, hear.
And besides, one should always be cautious regarding these kind of propositions by a politician. Especially when the French general elections are only months away and the bulk of the UK-expats are considered to be on the UMP-side of the local political spectrum.... So forget the petition for now and restart it about a year before the UK general election?
No 11- semi D Victorian villa with about 10 steps up to colonnaded front door with a front bay on ground and fists. At one stage I think a elderly guy with dementia lived in basement (not really a basement as only three or four steps down). It was the RH side of a pair. Very deep 125 ft rear garden but on N side or were you on the south side wich were a bit lower and mostly later? I think you were on the S as the Dolenz family was on the S. I have to agree he was not hugely amusing!!!! They were a manufactured group of course. It sounds like you were in a house in red brick which had a sort of in and out drive which was later "deconverted" back to a house by a black guy I think called Taylor. Nice guy and big sportsman.
I think we were 11, can't exactly remember but all three floors (1983 for maybe three or four years) were flats. My sister mainly lived in SW Ireland then but 'commuted' a lot and I was back and forth between Berlin, Lima and Cambridge, so we would not have been especially visible. I knew nobody other than the Dolenzes across the garden fence and used to chat whilst their kids were out playing. Ironically my sis screamed her knickers off outside the big hotel next to Kensington Gardens when the Monkees stayed there. When she got to meet Mickey all illusions flew away, he was apretty serious and a bit of a boring bloke.... Such irony.
Brian I think we were neighbours! Did we meet? We moved in in '83. We knew the Dolenz family too but only slightly. We were at 7 Trinity Crescent which we bought off Eric Thorp the Wapping Group artist. Still have friends at 5(Short) and 12 (MacDonald)! My house went with the divorce in '97! It was the Bells who bought off Mickey and they are in Battersea now!
My original thought on this was that the UK should create MP's specifically for ex-pats, as per the french suggestion.
My reasoning for this is that many of us retain financial ties to the UK, eg. government and civil service pensions or private pensions having to conform to UK governement rulings.
Personally, we will not be receiving any pension from France and, therefore, any decisions made by the UK government will more than likely have a bearing on us financially.
Also, presumably, anyone standing (such as yourself) would have a personal interest and could, therefore, represent the interests of ex-pats to their best advantage.
I can't see the UK actually leaving the EU, so I do not see and advantage in taking french citizenship. So, from my point of view that is how I think it should proceed.
OK, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER wait because if anybody is jerrymandering that is exactly what they want us to do. Experience has shown my colleagues and I that and common sense given that we must all have learned by now that politicans would rather we sit on our bums doing nothing so that they do not need to do a thing either.
A petition asking for decisive action to influence whether EU citizens should have universal electoral rights in their country of residence within the 27 member states would neither impinge on any proposed national legislation (no excuse for them to respond 'wait and see what happens here first') nor offend any single nation on the principle of that state having 'better' or 'different' to others and would push whoever to act as representation of a nation state or the EU itself on behalf of all citizens without bias toward any single nation.
But yestreday rather than tomorrow as my colleagues and I in the human (in my case, children's) rights arena have learned from very bitter experience.
That's great Keith.
Would it be better to wait and see is if the french proposal goes ahead and we can then follow suit, or to strike out on our own whilst this debate is fresh? Sometimes the timing is as important in these things as the wording and we don't want to get shot down in flames.
I agree, I am for the one here not the 15 years there. Threeting Bec (my sister and I kept a flat there, our neighbour was Micky Dolenz) in Trinity Crescent and Ian Hislop was just along the way in Trinity Road, plus a plaque nearby to say Thomas Hardy had lived at a particular house...
Seriously though, I do not know why the 15 years in UK when I live here and would be perfectly content (won't use 'happy') to have one here. Needs to be serious campaigning. I would certainly prefer to contribute here where I pay taxes and spend my ill gotten gains, or...