Welcome to gulag UK

Where you have no rights. Certainly not that of protest.

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Bully, devious… the list is getting longer :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

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“Where you have no rights, certainly not that of protest”

There have been many what maybe considered alternative outlets warning against this for months…

There is a small voice inside of me that suggests we are too late to turn the tide but then the warrior spirit I was born with always chooses to stand up….

Indeed, this has been shoehorned in when it is too late for parliament to do much to stop it. I think that we are past the Rubicon.

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So what do we do….??? Those of us who thought there was a common law…those of us who thought there was a universal law…those of us who were maybe guided by a principle to first do no harm…

For now I’m assuming that Tory tinkering with elections themselves will be limited to boundary changes, voter ID etc - while this is to their advantage it still allows for them to be voted out at the next general election.

There has been talk of them trying for an early election - I think this would also be to their advantage as the longer they leave it the more chance their sheer incompetence will catch up with them and they will lose - Labour already enjoy a narrow lead in the polls.

But, as I said, we might have crossed the Rubicon already - they are now confident enough to push through legislation limiting personal freedoms that would make Lukashenko blush and they will only get bolder.

Whether we will get a chance to vote them out of power remains to be seen.

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Should please all the young idiots that wanted communism. For all of ten minutes until they realise it’ll be them in the cattle cars off to Mostly Peaceful Re-Education Camp No. 3.

I think it’s more likely to please a load of facist old giffers.

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Another p**t that needs to be noticed!

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You live in France, don’t you? I don’t know what is doable from here regarding internal UK politics.

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If you have an MP you write to them, but that didn’t do much good.
I am still pursuing if the promised change to the fifteen year exclusion of UK citizens living abroad being unable to vote in UK elections is still in the Elections Bill.

Why do people who’ve been residents of another country for 15 years with no plans to ever return to the U.K. feel they should be able to vote in U.K. elections?

Genuine question.

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I suspect because it’s hard to give up a right to something and never say never.

Because they’re still citizens. The rights we have are often based on the country we’re citizens of, not where we are resident. If the U.K. government removes rights from citizens it will affect us as well as people who live in the U.K. and the only way we as citizens can push back on such things is via the ballot box. Of course we may be able to renounce citizenship and take that of another state but that is not automatic so may not be possible for some. Using an idiotic example, if the U.K. goes to war (literal or rhetorically via a souring of relations and sanctions or what have you), and the US decided U.K. citizens weren’t welcome, that would include us even if we say “Yes guv, I know my passport says British but I’m a frenchie in spirit, I’ve lived there for 15 years”.

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Probably because we’ve been disenfranchised. However giving “us” a vote in your own old constituency isn’t going to make any difference unless immigrants (and hate to use expat) have their own MP’s, but that will sadly never happen

Basically I would like the right to vote in UK, in spite of not living there for 30 years, because I still pay income tax in UK, on a teacher’s pension. I would have like to vote against Brexit, for example, as I have lived in Germany, Finland and France and consider myself European. There is no way of opting out of paying this UK tax, although I pay French tax on other pensions. I don’t really want to go through the ordeal of gaining French citizenship to be able to vote here.
I do think expats should be able to elect an MP representing the many Brits would live abroad.

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Interesting. I’m ambivalent about emigrants still voting in their country of origin - the fact is that many aspects of government policy - perhaps most aspects - don’t affect them directly.
I could vote in the UK (I’ve only been here in France 10 years) but choose not to - though I did vote in the brexit referendum.
But your suggestion Harland of special elected representatives for emigrants - as they have in France - is perhaps a good compromise.

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Yes, my wife and I were talking about this the other day. Apart from local elections we’re disenfranchised really. Whatever happened to no taxation without representation?

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