So You Don't Want To Live Here But You Want A Say On Who's In Government, Right Oh!

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-43172394
Does anyone else find this "votes for ex pats" cobras nonsensical?

[emmie]

looks like its going ahead..

[Theland]

If they swear allegiance to us instead of the caliphs

[murraymints]

If you pay tax in this country yes...if not..No !

[ummmm]

Even retired people who have paid tax all their working life and just want to live In a warmer climate?

[gulliver1]

If the expats had been allowed to vote you might have had a different mayor of London now

[murraymints]

If you leave this country and no longer contribute then you should have no voice in how it's run !

[Theland]

Nice one gulliver. If only.

[DTCwordfan]

Having lived all over the shop, I have never had the right to vote in the country where I pay my tax - and that to me should be the way that this is decided. However it is not. In the States, I met the new congresswoman who replaced Tom De Lay, the speaker of the House in the States, in the foyer of a Marriott Hotel - I got a bland 'I hope that you'll vote for me' in front of her lackeys - my response, 'I wish, as a Green Card holder, I should be able to as I pay my taxes here - I'll tell you what, I'll go and throw my teabags in the Brazos River as a protest. But then it's brown enough already.'

[-Talbot-]

Will there be an MP for expats then?

[ummmm]

Minty, but many of them do contribute. They pay tax on their pensions, the pensions they've earned.

No need for exclamation marks either.

[emmie]

can't see how it can work, as you say how are they going to vote for a constituency.

[murraymints]

Umm whyever not ? It's valid punctuation...

[murraymints]

As emmie says ...you have no home constituency either ....if you are not resident in the UK...then why should you have such a voice ? Rather like Sean Connery and his ilk...why on earth he shouts about Scotland and SNP when he has chosen to live in the Caribbean is a mystery....if one is such a patriot..then the least you do is live in that country !

[bhg481]

Perhaps the real problem is defining Country of Residence. Payment of taxes? You pay tax in any country you visit when you buy something. IncomeTax? You may not earn enough to pay income tax. Own a house? Many people don't and some own a house in more than one country. Actual time spent in the country each year might work but that might vary from year to year. Very tricky.

[gulliver1]

07.39 minty. how about the people who live in the UK and do not Contribute, should they be allowed to vote?

[murraymints]

If you are resident and live under our governing body ...Yes...you live here then you have a voice...

[Cloverjo]

My daughter-in-law is from Lithuania. She came here to go to university and has lived and worked here since then. I think she should have a vote.
Now that she has married my son, I assume she does have a vote, but I'm not sure.

[Jahulaye]

No they shouldn’t have a vote as why should you’ve involved in how others live?

[gulliver1]

And why should they not have a vote ? all the people in the UK who voted for Brexit are probably going to change the life of ex/pats one way or another.

[fiction-factory]

I don't follow you there gulliver