Humphrey Carter20/04/2017 00:00
TW
4

Another general election, and for those Britons who have lived outside of the UK for more than 15 years and have not registered to vote during that time - some two million expatriates around the world - cannot vote in seven weeks time.

In David Cameron’s manifesto was a pledge to change legislation so that all expatriates had a ‘vote for life’. Well, it appears that the electoral promise by Cameron, who did a runner as soon as he lost the Brexit referendum, has been put on the back burner.

I do not think this bodes well for the future of expatriates. Brexit will, whatever is promised, do few favours for expatriates living in the European Union and many of the thousands living here in Spain still cannot vote if they have been here past the deadline.

One Conservative MP, who has spent much of his time in the House of Commons trying to champion the rights of Britons living overseas, has apologised for the government’s failings over the ‘vote for life’ legislation. However, only a handful of MPs really care about the plight of expatriates and, in general, the feeling amongst society in the UK is rather negative as well.

I remember once trying to interest a leading tabloid newspaper in a story about the growing number of expatriates falling on hard times during the recession and having to rely on food parcels etc. The publication was not the slightest bit interested.

In fact the response was "they chose to go and live in the sun...".