To point out that if you're a UK citizen you can now register to vote even if you've lived abroad for more than 15 years?

[CrispEater]

The rules changed in January so even if you've been out of the UK for more than 15 years, you can vote.
https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/media-centre/all-abroad-more-brits-overseas-can-now-register-vote-0
It's very easy to register online.
https://www.gov.uk/voting-when-abroad

@brittanyfairies
Fabulous user name - especially for an expat 😂

Because they don’t live here so why should they have any say on who governs us.

Because the people who govern you make decisions that affect us as citizens, even if we arent resident there.

The last election I voted in, I voted Labour.

If I can navigate the application process to get my vote back I’ll vote SDP.

Most of us who have been away for a very long time are not “expats” sipping champers by the pool, slagging off “the natives”.

We are just plain old, bog standard, non champagne enjoying immigrants. It’s not at all unusual for us to have been economic migrants originally, because the 80s were no bloody fun at all in terms of trying to find a job. Tebbit said get on your bike and fair few of us didn’t stop peddling when the white cliffs were in sight. You can get really sick of being cold, hungry and being moved on from your latest squat or mood infested bedsit being to scared to use the shared bathroom because it had no lock, and some of your co-tenants were… not nice. I escaped grinding poverty, worn down by damp hopless ness, tettering on the edge of the sex industry.

Just like the people who immigrated to Britain, those of us who emigrated are a very varied bunch.

I’m surprised people are surprised that we might have an interest in who runs Britain after Brexit. Many of us got no say in something that radically altered the foundation of our legal position to live and work where we had lived, built lives, for a very long time.

And the country seems to have gone bonkers exporting a cultural shift away from reality and promoting the persecution of anybody who doesn’t believe in a reimagined version of transmogrification. (along with America to be fair, but Britain has been very much part of the problem)

So, yeah. In the globally connected world where I have to live with the outcomes of which voices get given the power to change laws and change their mind about previously agreed treaties, I appreciate getting my say back.

I’m not expecting huge successes for the SDP, so it might be a wasted vote, but it’s better than sitting on my side of the alps just putting up with whatever gets dished out with no say in it.

None of which I would have said pre-Brexit. But if you lot can poke about with my life then I reserve the right to poke at yours (in a far more minor manner) when given the opportunity.

My DH will be voting, as is his right.

Who is in the UK government still affects us. Student loans and pensions are just two things I can think off.

but their decisions affect us too, and our families. so being able to vote is excellent and restores something we lost.

Yep I got on my bike and left in the 80s too. My situation wasn’t as precarious as the one you describe but it was hard , financially, job and opportunity wise. We’d have loved to come back when our kids were small but the career/ housing opportunities just weren’t there and we’ve made a lovely life in the EU in the end. I have always had a vested interest in the UK and returned very regularly to visit family and now to care for elderly LOs ,traveling just being one of the things made harder by Brexit. So yeah I appreciate the chance to have my voice heard seeing as no one cared about our opinion in the referendum that concerned us. My choice will be labour for the sake of the younger generation .

Bloody annoyed the knickers off me during Brexit. Nobody gave a stuff about our lack of vote before. And after nobody gave a shit about the limbo we were thrust into. Major assumptions all over the place that we were sunburnt semi-thugs who think “foreigners” understand English if you shout in English slowly and loudly enough, or people who wafted around Tuscany wearing an outfit that cost more than a average British monthly salary.

I'm abroad, I'm a British citizen, I lived in UK for a very long time before I left over 15 years ago and so I have registered to vote there. What happens in the UK impacts my family, my friends and their children so I do it for them, but also for me here as I am due a UK pension soon from the many years I worked in there. I also own a small property there still. I will vote to keep the Tories out.

Most of us abroad are not 'all Tories' at all and I'd say most of us are absolutely anti Brexit. We were completely disregarded in the referendum, no knowing if we could stay, but at the same time couldn't move back to UK with our EU families, if our jobs were still valid, if we still had access to health care. It put most of us through sheer emotional hell trying to stay, plus the time spent in Government offices trying to do all the paperwork with poor staff who had no idea on what was the right or wrong procedure. We will now have to repeat this every 10 years. Should there ever be another referendum, and Ipsos predict there may well be at some point, so at least we'll have a say.

Also, just because I can vote in the UK I have no cunning plan to come and use the NHS, I have an excellent health service where I live.

Interesting this has changed, thanks for highlighting it. It won't effect me but still interesting.

I have the opposite problem, in that I've been here a good 20 years but have kept my nationality the same (no dual citizenship possible) and I can't vote in a GE in either country.

the ability to vote in the country where i now live was just about the only good thing that came from Brexit for me. I mean, I'm in Germany so the expense wasn't as high as it is in some places, and I've been here a long time and am integrated so it wasn't a huge problem. But it was an unnecessary stress and expense. And that is why i will be using my vote whenever possible.

And I’m seconding the last point.

My sister is combining her visits to me with health tourism from now on.

The state & private (but not scarily expensive private, not that much more expensive than the state service, just quicker and usually no buses involved) health system where I live leaves the NHS in the dust.

Having watched my sister being fobbed off since the pandemic I’m not sure the British NHS is any better than some of the less well served regions over here.

There is absolutely no way that I am going to the UK to use the NHS when I have the Dutch healthcare system available to me.

British citizens who get British pensions and are affected by British legislation and decisions from the British government affect them daily ... they arent allowed to vote in their new country. Voting is a democratic right

I presume by your comment that you support foreigners working in the uk should have the right to vote in the uk elections? They currentky xant say how their taxes are spent... is that fair?

One of the reasons we do this is so that our British children can easily pass on their nationality to their children (my grandchildren- one day hopefully!)

If I, as a British citizen, give birth overseas where I’m posted with my international job and resident status, my child is eligible for British nationality - it’s the only one he is in fact eligible for (Dad also British). But my son (or daughter) would one day have difficulties getting British nationality for their child because they weren’t born in the UK.

Where you are born matters. I could have give birth in far better conditions than the NHS offers in the country I’m posted in which has fantastic health care, but I returned home to give birth for precisely this reason. HTH

Most British people living overseas do not live in Spain or Portugal, and I see no particular reason why overseas Brits would be mostly Tory voters.

https://www.iexpats.com/where-do-british-expats-live/

British citizens who get British pensions and are affected by British legislation and decisions from the British government affect them daily

True, and I’ll add 15 year rule clobbered Brits abroad many well before pensionable age, despite them contributing to the Uk exchequer.

Until the recent change it was perfectly possible for a UK citizen to be non-resident but work for a UK company and depending on the type/mode of employment pay a f tonne of NI, just like a lot of UK residents do, and at least some UK income tax but have no say in Uk elections.

I’m looking forward to be able to cast my vote in July..and it won’t be for a Tory.

All this reminds me having done my local tax return I’ve still got my UK one to do.

The only people I know who live overseas are extremely well-off Boomers, FIL for a start who despite living in Spain, voted for Brexit. The last thing we want are these people voting.

I live in Jersey, which despite having its own lacklustre government to contend with is closely tied to and very much affected by decisions that the UK government makes.

Damn right I'll be voting now I have the opportunity again.

Just to reassure the worriers upthread though, I could call my GP now and get an appointment this morning, have an ambulance attend within 10 minutes or be in and out of A&E in a couple of hours, so I won't be rushing back to bother the NHS anytime soon.

Ah yes because the few people that you know who live abroad Heatherbell1978 - among the 302,00O Brits who live in Spain, the 293,000 who live in Ireland, the 177,000 who live in France, the 99,000 who live in Germany and the 66,000 who live in Italy - to take just a few examples, are all exactly the same and all think and vote the same way! 🙄.

I agree that the Great British Breakfast Brits who live abroad in enclaves and who voted for Brexit are completely barking but please don’t lump us all in the same basket!

I live outside the UK and I literally know of no expats who would vote Tory.

We have all been badly affected by the Tory Brexit. I can imagine many many of us will vote in droves to make our views known and hopefully there will be some recognition of hope badly we were shafted by the Tory lies and ineptitude.

Amazed at the aggressive responses from some people, do you speak to people like that in real life?

Since Brexit I no longer have the right to vote in France.

I do not know any "expats" (I prefer the term immigrants) who vote Conservative, but I know a lot who didn't have the right to vote in the Brexit referendum.

Some of my income is taxed in the UK - no taxation without representation?

The idea of going back to use the NHS is laughable, no disrespect to the NHS but it's not coping.

My first thought! I don't think this should be allowed.

I knew this was a post from a Labour voter. If you have a business and house be careful what you wish for. 😂

I live in Spain and I am not a boomer and won't be voting Tory. No other brit I know in Spain will be either.