It really gives me enormous pleasure in confirming that our very good friend and veteran campaigner, Harry Shindler, fully supports and endorses The Electoral Commission Campaign encouraging all British citizens now living in the other 27 EU member state countries, to register to vote in next month´s European Parliament electiions.
EU citizens have the right to vote in the European elections from May 22-25, 2014. This is in most cases also so, if you live in another country than the one you are born in.
Altogether 24 EU member states accept votes by their citizens living in another of EU’s 28 member state. And 20 member states also accept it, if they live in a country outside EU.
A Parliamentary Cross-Party Group comprising Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, Baroness Greengross, Lord Lexden, Professor Lord Norton (Chair), Professor Lord Parekh, and Lord Tyler have produced a report on Overseas voting.
There are estimated to be 5.6 million British nationals living abroad, with some 3 million believed to be eligible to register to vote.
British expatriates - “It’s your vote, don’t lose it” urges elections watchdog on Overseas Registration Day.
With just weeks to go before the European and local elections on Thursday 22 May, the Electoral Commission has launched an international campaign to encourage British citizens living overseas to register to vote.
IT IS hard to doubt Harry Shindler when he says he is committed to his country. As a young British soldier, he helped liberate Italy from fascism. Since then he has helped the families of his fallen comrades to find their graves. On February 19th the British ambassador in Rome will make him a Member of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his service.
But Mr Shindler really wants a simpler trophy: the right to vote. He is denied it because he has lived in Italy (“about ‘arf way up” the country, he explains in a still-strong south London accent) for the past three decades. Unlike America and most continental European countries, Britain withdraws the franchise from citizens who have been resident abroad for more than 15 years.
Our colleagues in the organisation SUISSES DE L’'ETRANGER (OSA) very strongly regret the result of the referendum on Sunday 9th February. Altogether 453.000 Swiss citizens live and work in a member state of the EU. And in the referendum yesterday they have voted against the proposal to limit the free movement.
See the declaration from OSA below (you can find the German version here: www.aso.ch)
(Text below translated by BVC.)
Politicians use the word 'governance' with different meanings, but with the same goal, to simplify the adoption of draft laws and legal practices to impose the will of their rule.
Now this is very similar to dictatorship or oligarchy (where power rests with a small number of people).
On Friday 31st January in the House of Lords The EU Referendum Bill died - but it is far from dead! What does that mean for us? Quite a lot! Your help is needed .
Lord Lipsey, the archetypal ‘we rule – you are ruled’ politician, tabled the motion that the House should ‘resume’! This arcane procedure meant that the Committee stage of the House debating the Referendum Bill came to an abrupt end and so did the Bill itself! It is all slightly strange to those unfamiliar with the way ‘our’ government proceeds.
