That I'll never be able to vote or belong anywhere again?

[daretodenim]

I'm Scottish and live in an EU country where you have to be a national to vote. So I can't vote here. If I were to become a national, I'd have to renounce my UK citizenship. I'm British, I don't want to do that.

As I've been out of the UK for 15 years, I am not eligible to vote in the UK.

As I'm not living in Scotland I'm not eligible to vote in any Indy Ref.

I've been holding out hope that IF Scotland became independent I'd get a Scottish passport and somehow made a link that I'd get a vote. However, I realised today that every single time an indy ref is discussed by Sturgeon and she refers to Scottish voters, she refers to "the people of Scotland". She does not refer to "Scots".

So basically, I'm not considered a person of Scotland, as that's those who live there.

I'm never going to get to vote again, am I? In the country I'm living in (and will have to for complex reasons for the foreseeable future), I'm considered British/Scottish. They don't see me as one of them, because I come from abroad. Fair enough. Yet, neither Britain nor Scotland see me as one of them either, because I'm living abroad.

So if I want to be part of a democracy, I have to renounce my identity. I can't quite believe this can be happening.

In the EU at least you can't vote in government elections unless you are a citizen of that country, you can normally cote in local elections though, can you do that?

I didn't know you can't vote in British elections if you've lived abroad for 15 years!

As I've been out of the UK for 15 years, I am not eligible to vote in the UK

Don't worry. Boris is going to make sure that anyone who is out of the UK for more than 15 years can vote in UK elections..

Not sure that's fair, but there you go.

Are you Sean Connery?

You cant have your cake and eat it.

Why would you want to vote here, having made your life abroad?

You cant have your cake and eat it

Boris Johnson is going to allow Brits who live abroad and have lived abroad for more than 15 years to vote in elections.

For some reason.

Sorry I think it’s unreasonable to want a vote when you haven’t lived here for 15 years!

If you can't return for the foreseeable future, why do you deserve a UK vote? The outcome won't affect you...

Not Sean, no. Then I'd be in the Caribbean and I reckon I could cope with that! 😂

Didn't know that about Boris. I honestly don't know if it's fair or not. Part of me thinks it's not, yet when I see my French and Dutch friends getting to vote despite some living abroad longer than me, I feel it's a right of being a citizen. I feel I'm considered less British. That can't be right, especially when I am impacted by British foreign policy never mind Brexit! It's like everybody else sees me as British apart from Britain! I follow British politics closer than a lot of my friends actually living there with the right to vote.

As for not having my cake and eating it, you maybe should be aware that you cannot always leave a country you're living in if you're divorced and your ex doesn't allow it. You can be done for abduction of the children and lose all custody. It's not all an extended city break for everybody.

But you should be allowed to vote somewhere! No taxation without representation and all that! Many countries have a life long voting right even if you live abroad. Some even have special ministers.

Good for Boris - I look forward to casting my vote for any other party whatsoever.

Brexit definitely affects me and when I've lived outside the EU British foreign policy also had major repercussions for me at times.

I didn't leave with the intention never to come back, life just didn't work out quite how I'd planned.

daretodenim, I have often "chortled" that they never ever mention the Hague Convention on A Place in the Sun. I wonder if that programme will now be killed off! Fucking Brexit.

But you aren't a citizen. You haven't lived here for 15 years.

Just renounce your identity and become a citizen of the country you do live in. Seems a bit ridiculous not to.

ChristmasSweet she's not a British citizen?

I suppose you're not really a Brit or a Scot who is just living abroad for a bit though. You've lived abroad for a really long time. If your franchise matters so much to you (no judgement here because it really would to me too), I'd make steps to fulfil whatever residency or citizenship requiremenrs you need to. Or move back to Scotland. Because as you can see, if you're making your life here, that's it! You're in!

Of course she is! Would you have said that all those people off building the colonies in India and America years back were not British citizens? some of whom were away for years. Plus NATO and EU employees?

You can apply for dual nationality. At least that would give you a vote where you live.
Some of the pp comments were very spiteful indeed. Pay no attention.

Some countries don't allow dual nationality FesteredFairy,

Even if your country of residence expects you to give up your UK citizenship, the UK doesn't. You can go and get a new passport.

Dual nationality isn't an option: in order to get the nationality I have to renounce my British nationality. I'm British!!

I'd also have to pay about £300 to renounce it!

Returning immediately isn't possible. I'd have done it before now if it was.

Someone above (sorry in phone and tagging a pain) mentioned local elections. I can now vote in them (and will when they next happen), but it's in no way the same as voting for a national government.

If you don't renounce your prior nationality/ies then you don't get to keep the one of this country (so the new one).

There are some countries where you cannot renounce - like Turkey - but the UK you can and therefore have to.

I hear you op and this pisses me off no end! All the people who say we don't deserve a vote in the UK, should look up and look out and take note that not everyone can live a tidy life in the country of their choice. I ended up falling in love and marrying a Brit who for work and family reasons ended up living in a European country which I wouldn't have chosen to live in in a million years. I've made the best of it (and thankfully my DH has been very much worth leaving the UK and my family and career for) and have put down roots here and now I like it very much, but all of that doesn't make me any less British. One of each of our late parents was a citizen of another European country and so our heritages are mixed. That's not our fault either! We still pay some taxes in the UK, our office often represents a lot of British businesses, we listen to Radio 4, watch the BBC news (such as it is) we even have HP sauce on the table and eat a full English fhs! Brexit has and is affecting us massively and we didn't get a day in that either.

Is it ok - democratically speaking - that an estimated 1.2 million Brits living in the EU are denied the vote? I don't think so!

A vote is to Decide on how a country is run/ you’ve chosen not to be part of either country, your original or the one you’ve moved to.

In many EU countries which don’t allow dual citizenship there are campaigns for Brexit-related exemptions. Do you know how that’s going where you live?