Hello all. Hope you're enjoying this glorious weather. Not too hot.not too cold. Mmmmm.
I saw this today and wondered if anyone else thinks the same as me about European citizenship. http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/National-News/Pickles-slams-EU-certificates-move-2-7683494.xnf
Ed Pickles is being typically paranoid about everything the EU is potentially useful for, feeding the hungry culture of anti-eu feeling that sweeps the country. I can think of no good reason for this apart from his own clear objective to whip up nationalistic protectionist vitriol purely in order to win him more votes.
It costs between 25 and 70 euros to get a translation of a birth certificate and takes a lot longer to sort out admin tasks in the process. This loss of time is even more costly for many people living or working in other EU countries than where they were born. It makes perfect sense to standardise it. If everyone in the world had the same certificate, I would not care less.
It would not make me feel any less "British", in fact I'd say it makes me more "British" and less of a "foreigner", with instant multinational recognition of my nationality and none of the inconvenience that goes along with being an 'etranger'.
But of course, I suppose we're all allowed & encouraged to continually harp on about how "they all come over here to steal our jobs, houses and a place in the doctor's queue", & we're not meant to be making it easier for any of us to go and do the same in any another country.
There's 7 billion of us for goodness sake and we need a bit of free movement to try and find work. What's the matter with that?
My standard conclusion = The rich are getting richer. The gap is widening between the poor & the rich(especially, apparently, in the UK) They already own everything that should still belong to everyone (water, food, medicines, energy, fresh air) and if they keep the lower order type population arguing with each other, we'll all be too occupied with bickering about the foreigners to notice how they're still stealing all our stuff.
Eric pickles, conservative MP for Brentwood, is also secretary of state for communities and local councils. He appears to have become a career politician early on and failed to declare any financial interests for 9 years http://www.1in12.com/publications/archive/thepicklespapers/pickleschap2.html
So,if you look at the register of MP’s financial interests now, you will find "PICKLES, Eric (Brentwood and Ongar) Nil.
He is one of only 6 members of 29 in the cabinet who is not thought to be a millionaire, so while clearly not officially part of the 2percent club, he remains apparently totally dependent on votes for his only source of income.
Whether this is good thing in general or not is not very clear. On one hand, why should we pay for MP's to make our decisions when they continue to earn from potentially conflicting interests & on the other, if we have MPs who do nothing else, they'll all be as prone to stir up such unhealthy vote-catching headlines as Pickles in order to protect their careers & financial stability.
My message to Eric would be this : I appreciate you need to remain a politician, but would prefer you not do it at my expense , please.
This is the week I definitely remember to fill in my voting registration form.
Did you all know that you are entitled to vote up to 15 years after leaving the UK?
you register from your last UK address.
http://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/register_to_vote/british_citizens_living_abroad.aspx