Write to the editor

I, like thousands of fellow British expats, lost my right to vote by the 15-year exclusion rule. I have lived abroad for the past 24 years. As a British citizen, I really resent losing my vote. 
 
The 2015 Election is coming up next May, only seven months away, just over 200 days in which we expats worldwide can also campaign, and very possibly achieve that vital tipping point.

We can fight, we can join in, and we can take part. We can get involved! Don’t shrug off ‘Politics’ because politics dictates our pensions, tax allowances and everything-else. What is more, we all care about the future for our children and grandchildren.

Up until pretty recently, it was as if we expats did not exist, unloved, unwanted, we thought, but behind the scenes all sorts of things were happening, as I have discovered. Yes, we watched the Electoral Reform Debates in 2012, and 2013, and were incredibly disappointed in the opposition to our voting rights.
  
Despite this, numerous right-minded British MPs have been beavering away on our behalf to correct this injustice. MPs like Geoffrey Clinton-Brown (Cotswold), now chairman of the International Office, has been leading the charge for years to restore our right to vote, negotiating, finagling as one has to, in the parliamentary system, and Sir Roger Gale, together with many MPs, who think it disgraceful that our voting rights have been taken away.

MPs that recognise the value of expats who create exports, contribute to the UK GDP and invest in the UK.

A committee of Backbench MPs has also been working away, plus the Speakers Committee, and are all totally committed and intent on extending voting rights, and who in the past year insisted on the Electoral Commission extending their efforts to recruit expat voters.

Well, all these people – with the huge support of Conservatives Abroad, achieved recently a signal victory. Just last month, Grant Shapps, Conservative Party chairman, on behalf of the party truly nailed their colours to the mast, and stated: ‘Get us in, in 2015, with a decent working majority, and we will repeal the 15-year rule’ and trumpeted this to thousands of UK citizens, home and abroad.

You can see where he is coming from. The Conservatives have to get a solid working majority in order to do this. 

Up until now the repeal of the 15-year rule in the Electoral Reform debates has been consistently blocked by collusion from Labour/Liberal MPs. They seem to think all expats will vote the same way. This is not necessarily true, and should in all truly democratic societies, be totally irrelevant, we should, as citizens, have the right to vote anyway we wish.

So what can we do to help this campaign? There are at least 2.5 million of us, who still have the right to vote, but unfortunately only around 30,000 of those have so far registered. Around another 2.5 million have lost the right to vote by the 15-year exclusion rule but we can all work together to reverse that ruling.
 
For a start all expats who are not affected by the 15-year rule – but who have not yet registered to vote – can as from this past June just get on line and register, all you need is your National Insurance Number and/or your passport number, it takes maximum 3.5 minutes to do. And bingo you will be getting a postal ballot for the 2015 Election, without any need to re-register.  Also the postal times have been extended so that your postal ballot has plenty of time to reach the UK. Do it now: go to https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

And what can the rest of us vote-less expats do? Quite a lot actually.
 
For example, you can use all your contacts, your family, children, grandchildren, we are now all so linked up, via internet, via social media, we can achieve miracles. Canvass all your expat friends and make sure they know about digital registration.  

Join in the fight, don’t feel frustrated – take part. There are thousands of us, if we all put our shoulder to the wheel – excuse the wildly-mixed metaphors – we can shift mountains!

Anita Rieu-Sicart,  by email.

I have made several attempts to contact the GulfWeekly Book Club but have not received any replies. Could you please investigate?

R. Mongomery,  Amwaj Islands.

Editor’s note: Apologies we appear to have suffered some email gremlins recently. Out tech team has assured me that everything is now back up-and-running. If you would like to join please email bookclub@gulfweekly.com to receive exclusive savings and offers.