Give us a vote: we’ve got most to lose if UK quits [View all]

[unhappycamper]

http://www.thelocal.es/20150522/give-us-a-vote-weve-got-most-to-lose-if-britain-quits



2.2 million Brits live in another EU country. 2.3 million people from elsewhere in the EU live in the UK.

Give us a vote: we’ve got most to lose if UK quits
James Savage
22 May 2015 08:41 GMT+02:00

Who is more affected if Britain leaves the EU: the South African student living in the UK for six months or the German who has lived there and paid taxes for fifteen years? The Indian working in the City for a couple of years before moving back to Mumbai, or the British pensioner who retired to Spain in 2002?

Some time in the next year or two there will be a referendum on whether the UK leaves the EU.

In a bizarre anomaly, if you’re one of the million people from the rest of the Commonwealth living in the UK, you will likely be given the vote (as you are in general elections) - but you won’t if you’re one of the 2.3 million people from another European country, or if you are British and have lived outside the UK for more than fifteen years.

As I left the UK in 2003 I’ll probably get the vote if the referendum is held in 2017, but it will be a close-run thing. Millions of others who moved slightly longer ago will be deprived of a say.