The UK election is coming up. I haven't lived there for over 4 years and I haven't contributed to the economy or culture in any way. I pay no UK tax and don't even fill out a UK tax return any more. But I can still vote. Should I - and people like me - still have an influence over the political outcome and, therefore, future of a country that we don't even live in and wouldn't have to suffer the consequences of whatever that election outcome might be?

I believe that you can vote in your old constituency for up to 15 years after you left. I have timed out now. I still have interests in private and state pensions so, if I had felt so inclined, I could have justified to myself voting for those years.

Maybe I didn't think I should have inflicted my choice if I didn't have to live with the consequences, maybe I was lazy, or maybe the fact that my local MP was a Tory who was returned with a 20,000 majority during Labour's landslide of 1997 meant I didn't think there was much point.

I think it is 15 years. I still keep a reasonable knowledge of what's happening in UK politics and we are still on the electoral roll. I could vote UKIP and then just sit back and watch the circus! But I suppose the question is more a moral one - should I?

If you're interested enough to follow the political issues in Britain, then I think you should feel free to vote. With respect to personal impact, you can't be sure that you or members of your family will not end up in Britain at some future time. In addition, the country will have the benefit of your seasoned views, which in some ways will be more informed than some of the new voters that are now eligible. Aside from all this, it's going to be a cracking election!

I've refused to vote in the UK since we left. I don't feel I should have any say in the matters when I don't have to live with the consequences. Personally I don't think people who leave the country should be allowed unless they are gone with work or on service.

Same here. I haven't voted since I left those fair (ish) shores.

And maybe it would be justified, say, for voting for the party in favour of annually uprating retirement pension for those in Canada.

Personally I'd rather not vote in the UK (I don't) even if I could for another 4 and a bit years, but instead have the right to vote in Canada as a PR (the P means Permanent after all) when married to a Canadian wife and having parental responsibilities for Canadian children.

I don't see that citizenship should be a 'must' to be able to do so.

There's so much corruption and cronyism in Canadian politics it's not worth getting worked up about. But out of principle I reckon I should be allowed to vote in Canada and not the UK.

I follow the politics in the USA, should I be allowed to vote there then? After all I can't guarantee that I won't end up living there at some point.

I agree 100% with the above. If I pay my taxes in Canada, why should I not have the right to have my say in how they are spent. I don't even get a chance to vote in the transit referendum. PR = 2nd class "citizen"

You'd fail the common sense test Zoe. ie you have some...

I've often thought that you should have to pass a basic comprehension test before you are allowed to vote.

Wouldn't that type of test exclude a lot of the more vulnerable and historically disenfranchised socio-economic groups? That's exactly the sort of tact local electoral commissions used in the southern part of the U.S. to deny African Americans the vote.

Oh I know it wouldn't work in practice. just one of my many musings.

That's the sort of thing you hear at middle class dinner parties as they're dipping bread into oil.

Dipping bread into oil,
how gauche...

one has staff to do that kind of thing for them, don't you know