Britain's Conservative Government is set to introduce their bill on delivering a referendum on Britain remaining a member of the European Union. Legislation will be introduced via the EU Referendum Bill to cover voting eligibility.
The voting eligibility is set to allow citizens of the Irish Republic (also a fellow EU country) and the Commonwealth who are aged 18 years or over the right to vote. However, the eligibility is set to refuse voting rights to citizens from other EU countries who are resident in the UK, with a certain exception I will come to in a moment.
The absurd consequences of this proposal allow voting rights to not only citizens of the Republic of Ireland, but also to two other EU Member States (Malta and Cyprus) as members of the Commonwealth. This seems like a bit of a colonial hangover to me.
I want to be very clear that I don't want to see every EU citizen who is resident in the UK, the right to vote in this referendum. As a pro-European, I recognise that a close referendum result in favour of staying in which is swung by all the citizens of EU Member States who are resident in Britain, would not decisively settle the issue in the way I wish to see Britain decide.
All I am calling for is common sense and fairness. If I ever decided to move to Australia, I would personally not expect the right to gain any voting rights until I have either obtained Australian citizenship, or been a resident for a certain number of years. I don't personally think in the 21st Century that I should be able to obtain those rights from day one, just because the UK and Australia are both members of the Commonwealth!
I say that some EU citizens who have been resident and worked in this country for many years, have made a contribution to Britain that deserves just a little more respect. How can it be fair, for example, that an EU citizen who has lived in the UK for over twenty years, not to be given the same voting rights as another EU citizen who has lived here for a year, just because the person here for two decades came here from Rome, whilst the more recent arrival came here from Dundalk?
The voting eligibility is set to allow citizens of the Irish Republic (also a fellow EU country) and the Commonwealth who are aged 18 years or over the right to vote. However, the eligibility is set to refuse voting rights to citizens from other EU countries who are resident in the UK, with a certain exception I will come to in a moment.
The absurd consequences of this proposal allow voting rights to not only citizens of the Republic of Ireland, but also to two other EU Member States (Malta and Cyprus) as members of the Commonwealth. This seems like a bit of a colonial hangover to me.
I want to be very clear that I don't want to see every EU citizen who is resident in the UK, the right to vote in this referendum. As a pro-European, I recognise that a close referendum result in favour of staying in which is swung by all the citizens of EU Member States who are resident in Britain, would not decisively settle the issue in the way I wish to see Britain decide.
All I am calling for is common sense and fairness. If I ever decided to move to Australia, I would personally not expect the right to gain any voting rights until I have either obtained Australian citizenship, or been a resident for a certain number of years. I don't personally think in the 21st Century that I should be able to obtain those rights from day one, just because the UK and Australia are both members of the Commonwealth!
I say that some EU citizens who have been resident and worked in this country for many years, have made a contribution to Britain that deserves just a little more respect. How can it be fair, for example, that an EU citizen who has lived in the UK for over twenty years, not to be given the same voting rights as another EU citizen who has lived here for a year, just because the person here for two decades came here from Rome, whilst the more recent arrival came here from Dundalk?
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