I'm not sure you needed the "I'll repeat myself" bit - I was only asking!!!Yambo wrote: ↑Tue Aug 17, 2021 7:06 pm
I'll repeat myself, voting is not compulsory and I may vote in the future or I may not depending on personalities, party manifestos or whatever. What I shouldn't do though is be disenfranchised because of where I currently choose to live by the very people who I may well have voted for in the past.
There's a principle involved here. I am still a UK tax payer, and if they still want my money I should be able to have my say, the same as everyone else, about who spends it. I certainly did vote for Brexit (and I voted against staying in the Common Market or whatever it was called back in 1975) and living neither in the UK or the EU had nothing to do with it. I voted to leave because I though it was the best thing for Britain.
I'm English/British and I have had the right to vote in UK elections and referenda since 1969. I shouldn't lose it because a governing body decided that living abroad for 15 years meant I shouldn't or wouldn't be interested. They were wrong. Getting rid of that 15 year rule is the right thing to do (maybe especially for the party that scrapped it).
I didn't realise you were still a taxpayer in the UK - that makes it more sensible to want to vote.
I'm not a taxpayer in the UK and no longer want to live there/have no plans or wishes to return, so zero intention to vote. It is no longer 'my' country, so I don't see that I should have a say in the politics. Because you have moved away I wondered why you still wanted to vote there, but the tax thing and that you still have that affinity to the UK as 'your country' makes sense on that score