Mark604

I really feel strongly that the right to have a say in who governs them are the people who are directly affected by the government policies whether they live there or not.

AlanUK2

Help me out here. Do you mean enjoy the benefits of a chosen expat life style etc but keep a finger in the pie on matters that may jeopardise that life style irrespective of what the people using Food Banks or struggling to do a good job in overstretched Public Services have to experience or I could be wrong and you would use your vote to contribute to alleviating those and other gradually increasing hardships ?

AlanUK2

The plain fact that you nolonger actually live here in a declined society that a growing number of resident citizens struggle to live comfortably.

Mark604

This subject has been covered in depth before, and more than once. How, for whom and why I vote for anyone, any party or policy, which minority, which class of society, which public service or institution benefits is none of your business. I can and I will. Tough.
I suggest before you get on your high horse you actually read the whole thread.

bobd22

The fact is the law has been changed to allow expats to vote beyond the 15 year point. We can all hold and express our opinions on change. At least now if one disagrees with the change the law allows for one to ignore it and simply not vote. As someone forced to pay quite a large proportion of my tax to HMRC I am quite happy to be able to vote on who may be spending that tax i pay. There are many ways my life as a pensioner living in spain could be affected by the uk government including my income and my health care. One only has to vo back to 2016 post Brexit and the uncertainty many of us had over a annual pension increases health care rights etc no one was certain what the entitlement would be and most could vote for or against something could have drastically affected their future, at least you now have the right to vote but can simply choose not to if you wish. So long as my postal vote arrives in time i for one will be voting .

bobd22

sorry that should read most "could not vote"
​​​​I only realised error when too late to edit the post
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Mustard

Good luck with that. I registered on the electoral role but last week received the following message:If you want to vote, we would strongly suggest that you appoint a proxy. Information and the application can be found here: Apply for a proxy vote - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The deadline to appoint a proxy is 5pm on Wednesday 26 June 2024.

(Postal votes will be despatched on Wednesday 26 June and so it is unlikely that is enough time for the ballot pack to reach overseas addresses and be returned in time to be included in the count).

Official correspondence normally takes two weeks to arrive here so this whole ex-pat voting is just moot!

BuckinghamshireBoy

Interesting post.

If I may ask, who gave the " ... we would strongly suggest that you appoint a proxy ..." hint, was it gov.uk or your 'local' authority?

I've tried for a proxy, hit the wall, so am going with postal for the while, my 'local' authority did not advise one way or the other.

bobd22

i accept that my postal vote may be delayed hopefully gets here in time for my vote to count. Some areas are saying to expect them tbis week of course getting to spain is another matter. In the past i have received them in time .



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Mustard

The e-mail came from Electoral Services, East Suffolk Council.

BuckinghamshireBoy

Cheers, thanks for the response.

Your lot sound more clued up on reality vis-a-vis potential European postal issues than my lot.

Joppa

I have appointed a relative in UK as proxy voter at the last GE and this. There is fair few hurdles to negotiate such as writing out a signature on plain white paper, take a picture of it and send off. Also if your proxy lives a fair way from your (former) constituency, they have to ask for postal voting which involves phoning up electoral registration office (9-5, M-F) and getting a postal voting form to be sent off. As the deadline for requesting postal vote is this Wednesday, they emailed the postal voting form and suggested emailing the completed form back.

bobd22

Our postal vote forms have arrived today so we will complete them and post them back on Monday.

bob_bob

Scrapped the 15 year rule? Tories are desperate for votes. You leave the country you should loose your right to vote.

BuckinghamshireBoy

Some reading for people who oppose votes for non-resident citizens can be found here.

As more than a few posters have mentioned here (and on other threads) their reasons for welcoming becoming re-eligible to vote (albeit not with blanket voting rights as may be found in some other countries), I feel that those wishes should be respected.