Berberis Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 Having just read on the BBC news site that for some reason, people who are not UK citizens are being allowed to vote on the future of the Britain's role in the EU, I'm a little shocked. Is this a mistake? I know other non British people who are not allowed to vote, so why these people? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36316467 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFKvsNixon Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 Having just read on the BBC news site that for some reason, people who are not UK citizens are being allowed to vote on the future of the Britain's role in the EU, I'm a little shocked. Is this a mistake? I know other non British people who are not allowed to vote, so why these people? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36316467 From your link: As a hangover from the days of empire, when so-called "British subjects" were included in the parliamentary franchise, Commonwealth citizens resident in the UK without British nationality retain the right to vote in elections. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomjames Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 Outrageous. They should be deported not given a vote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berberis Posted May 23, 2016 Author Share Posted May 23, 2016 Outrageous. They should be deported not given a vote. I wouldn't go that far. Just seems odd how non nationals are voting in our elections. There are over 100,000 Australians and 59,000 Malaysians living in the UK. Thats a sizable number that can effect our electoral outcomes. British Citizens don't have the rights to vote in their elections. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L00b Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 (edited) Outrageous. They should be deported not given a vote.Dare I ask, given this nuanced opinion of yours about Commonwealth voters, how you feel about expat Brits being denied the right to vote? I wouldn't go that far. Just seems odd how non nationals are voting in our elections. There are over 100,000 Australians and 59,000 Malaysians living in the UK. Thats a sizable number that can effect our electoral outcomes. British Citizens don't have the rights to vote in their elections.You might want to look into how many Irish (not Northern-) in the UK are allowed to vote. It's substantially more than 159,000 (current estimates are half a million). ...and I have every faith in them. Smart people, the Irish are Edited May 23, 2016 by L00b added link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berberis Posted May 23, 2016 Author Share Posted May 23, 2016 Dare I ask, given this nuanced opinion of yours about Commonwealth voters, how you feel about expat Brits being denied the right to vote? You might want to look into how many Irish (not Northern-) in the UK are allowed to vote. It's substantially more than 159,000 (current estimates are half a million). ...and I have every faith in them. Smart people, the Irish are The Irish connection is very different though. Ireland was part of the United Kingdom. Australia and Malaysia were part of the commonwealth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFKvsNixon Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 The Irish connection is very different though. Ireland was part of the United Kingdom. Australia and Malaysia were part of the commonwealth. They were British Subjects though weren't they through the Commonwealth links? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L00b Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 (edited) The Irish connection is very different though. Ireland was part of the United Kingdom. Australia and Malaysia were part of the commonwealth.Indeed it is, but Ireland (the Republic) hasn't been a part of the UK for a century, and the distinction is irrelevant to the issue raised in your OP: the net effect is the exact same in 2016, the Irish residing in the UK are "not UK citizens being allowed to vote on the future of the Britain's role in the EU" (not a dig, just a statement of fact ) Considering their numbers, and your theme about the effect of the non-British-but-voting's volume of votes on the referendum outcome, I'd have thought they would be of interest to you in this debate Edited May 23, 2016 by L00b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geared Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 how you feel about expat Brits being denied the right to vote? They used the same rule during the Scottish referendum didn't they? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L00b Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 (edited) They used the same rule during the Scottish referendum didn't they?No, AFAIR expat Scots were blanket-banned irrespective of the length of expatriation (and the definition of expatriation included 'to Britain and Wales') , there was no cut-off period involved (15 years for expat Brits in the EU referendum). There are other, fairly fundamental differences as well: the voting age was lowered to 16 and voting rights were consented to EU residents in Scotland for the Scottish referendum. There are no equivalent provisions for the EU referendum. Edited May 23, 2016 by L00b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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