Unless there's data otherwise I expect the ex pats to be more left wing than people expect (which I think is coloured by memories like @noneoftheabove's grandparents' friends - a description I too recognise very well.
Firstly there's the ones affected by Brexit.
Secondly the ones otherwise affected by immigration policy (how many are living abroad as they cannot take their family back?
Thirdly they don't have to take the consequences of any tax increases but they do get to "enjoy" our public services when they come back to visit.
Younger son is on his way atm from Thailand for a short, mainly business, visit. He’s not happy about the difficulties around bringing his Thai wife over here, and the costs his children might face if they try to come here for University. I’ll see what he says about voting for Priti Patel when he arrives!
On topic, let’s think through the logical steps of what Biden is doing.
He’s highlighting apparent failings in Trump’s cognitive abilities. Fair enough. After all, Trump has been pummelling him on the same issue.
But is it necessarily wise to be banging on about your opponent’s cognitive decline when most voters would say your own is more pronounced? Probably not because it brings more attention to the issue.
So it appears like there are three possible strategies here:
1. Do whatever is needed to persuade Republicans to vote Haley. Which suggests Democrats would be comfortable with her as the candidate / President - not a strategy likely to endear her to Republicans.
2. Suppress his vote by raising questions about his mental fitness but taking the risk it will highlight the problems facing you as a candidate.
3. Biden is looking beyond himself to a scenario where he steps down for a younger candidate and suddenly Trump’s age / cognitive decline no longer is a relative issue vs the two candidates but an absolute one.
Anyone remember @MrEd? Perhaps he still clip clops among us?
'An extra 2.2 million overseas voters who have lived abroad for more than 15 years regained the right to vote in UK elections last Tuesday, after a statutory instrument that was approved by parliament in late December almost unnoticed came into force.
The expansion means they will be able to register in the constituency of the last address at which they were resident if they are able to provide relevant documentation, or failing that, through local records or on the word of an eligible British resident.
They will then be able to vote by proxy, with one proxy voter able to vote on behalf of as many as four overseas voters.
The Electoral Commission raised concerns in response to an earlier consultation in 2016 that voters “might be tempted to choose a marginal seat they had once lived in rather than a safe seat even if it had not been the last address they lived at before leaving”.
Concerns were also raised about the difficulty of checking information and the potential for fraud.'
Tory efforts at gerrymandering are getting farcical. First they try to stop people who actually live here and pay taxes from voting over entirely imaginary risks of fraud, and then they open the way to actual fraud so that people who might not have lived here or paid tax in decades get a vote. Utterly pathetic.
Personally I'd go the other way. Rather than extending the franchise to those who've lived abroad for more than 15 years, I'd limit it to those who live in this country at the time of the election. I don't quite get why those who have no direct stake in our affairs because they are permanently resident elsewhere should get to vote here, but maybe I'm missing something. Of course, they would be fully entitled to have their vote restored when/if they return to reside in the UK.
It depends whether electoral rights should follow taxation and consumption of public services (which would be the reverse US independence argument - "no representation without taxation") or should follow citizenship in its wider sense, which involves consumption of certain UK public goods like consular services - including whether you'll get the SAS coming to free you if taken hostage, passports, and the right to live and work in the country.
I am in two minds, but I don't have any particular objection. I think it's good to keep abreast of what the diaspora are thinking.
That’s a good way of putting it.
I’m also in two minds and can see the arguments both ways, but I will say that one of the lovely things about living in Expatsville is seeing a long queue form outside some random country’s embassy, because it’s their day of voting.
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I’m also in two minds and can see the arguments both ways, but I will say that one of the lovely things about living in Expatsville is seeing a long queue form outside some random country’s embassy, because it’s their day of voting.