The Brexit referendum thread: potential consequences for GB, EU and the Brits in CH

	Quote:	Loz1983
	Indeed, the propaganda machine has to work overtime in the most impoverished parts of the country.

How is it propaganda? Are you saying that the EU funding of the roads is factually incorrect? Or that Scotland is often underfunded because of its distance from Westminster?

Or what?

Seems a bit of a bold and confident dismissal without much to back it up.

[amogles]

	Quote:	roegner
	Just drive through Scotland: the amount of roads/bridges/etc with a notice "financed with funds from the EU" is high.

Maybe it's because the EU is better at PR.

You don't see many signs saying "finanbced by Westmister", but that doesn't mean the money isn't flowing from there too.

	Quote:	Loz1983
	I don't see any reason why not. Rather than sending off a pound to Brussels and being grateful for the 50p that comes back to fund such projects, the country will be able to put the original pound in.

	Quote:
	How is it propaganda? Are you saying that the EU funding of the roads is factually incorrect? Or that Scotland is often underfunded because of its distance from Westminster? Or what? Seems a bit of a bold and confident dismissal without much to back it up.

He's just having a wee bit of banter that Scotland is impoverished. To be fair, he's not far off the mark in many places. We send all our pounds to Westminister and get 50ps back too, so we need all the EU help we can get.

	Quote:	amogles
	Maybe it's because the EU is better at PR. You don't see many signs saying "finanbced by Westmister", but that doesn't mean the money isn't flowing from there too.

If you look closely, many an MP's duck moat or portcullis has this sign on it.

[Belgianmum]

	Quote:	Clocker
	No, there are other ways. I applied for a postal vote from Switzerland as I knew that you could still vote if you were on an electoral roll in the UK (or had still been in the preceding 15 years). The fact that I had left more than 15 years before, became, in this instance largely irrelevant. The address where I was still on an electoral roll was a student house and after moving, the next residents obviously never filled anything in to update the records. I still distinctly remember in 3 different student houses filling in the forms myself and 'cleaning' up the records by deleting names of people that had moved on. Clearly at one address, nobody did this for several years long after I myself had left, hence me and others staying on it. The UK electoral roll system is very sloppy. You can be registered at several addresses or simply remain on the electoral roll decades after having left or even having passed away. I worked with marketing and market research data in the 1990s in the UK for a time and we used, in part, the electoral roll. I still remember a telephone call with a woman who very angrily told me that the woman I was looking for had died 20 years previous. I politely explained that we had the details from the electoral roll and that the woman was still on it. The woman on the phone said she had only taken over the phone number and had not lived at the address of the deceased woman so couldn't (or refused to) do anything about it. Nobody from my old UK address needed to forward me anything for me to be able to vote. The website for this at the time made it clear that voting was possible in these circumstances. Nothing was mentioned about where you were legally residing. My application based on that old address was accepted by the local UK authority and as such, like any sensible person, I exercised my right to vote 'Leave', naturally.

Maybe I am still on an electoral roll somewhere, I lived at multiple addresses in the UK and I’m pretty sure I didn’t remove myself from them so if nobody else did I am still there.

We registered as overseas voters before there were any online options for anything so it was impossible to fudge the issue.

I wonder how many other leave voters were like you and were technically not entitled to vote.

[greenmount]

	Quote:	Belgianmum
	It is ridiculous. When we lived in Belgium as we were EU nationals we had the right to vote in the local and EU elections but not the national ones although we could still vote in the UK general elections until the 15 years expired. Once we moved here to Switzerland we had no voting rights anywhere in any country. We had lost the UK rights so couldn’t vote there and until we had been here for 5 years and got our C permits we had no right to vote in Switzerland either. Now we can vote in the cantonal and communal votes here.

It's obviously good that you can vote at least here albeit probably not when more important issues are at stake, but I can't get past this ridiculous situation - not to be allowed to vote in general elections, referendums of your birth country and the one from which you're still holding a passport. All I can say is I hope this thing will change in the future because it's not fair at all.

[Blueangel]

This is my kind of woman. She reminds me of soooooo many of my friends, family and former colleagues. Her comment at 1:40 had me crying laughing.

How does this work?

[Clocker]

	Quote:	Belgianmum
	I wonder how many other leave voters were like you and were technically not entitled to vote.

I'm probably one of a few exceptions. I think the vast majority of those who voted, but apparently you say technically were not entitled to, since not in the UK, will have voted 'Remain'. Fortunately their efforts weren't sufficient to swing the result.

[Belgianmum]

	Quote:	Clocker
	I'm probably one of a few exceptions. I think the vast majority of those who voted, but apparently you say technically were not entitled to, since not in the UK, will have voted 'Remain'. Fortunately their efforts weren't sufficient to swing the result.

I think you’re right, most of the overseas voters especially those residing in the EU would have voted remain.
All of my UK friends back in a Brussels would have voted remain for sure but most of them didn’t have the option. Quite a few of them will now lose their jobs.

[amogles]

	Quote:	greenmount
	It's obviously good that you can vote at least here albeit probably not when more important issues are at stake, but I can't get past this ridiculous situation - not to be allowed to vote in general elections, referendums of your birth country and the one from which you're still holding a passport. All I can say is I hope this thing will change in the future because it's not fair at all.

With more and more people holding two, three or even more passports, I can see conflicts coming and the concept of "one person, one vote" being undermined.

Why should the opinion of one person weigh two or three times as much as that of another person in an EU election, just because that person has more passports?

Especially if you consider that several EU countries sell passports for money. At what point does that become selling votes for money?

In my view the only solution is that you don't genuinely live in a country, you shouldn't be allowed to vote there.

	Quote:	amogles
	With more and more people holding two, three or even more passports, I can see conflicts coming and the concept of "one person, one vote" being undermined. Why should the opinion of one person weigh two or three times as much as that of another person in an EU election, just because that person has more passports? In my view the only solution is that you don't live in a country, you shouldn't be allowed to vote there.

So would you accept that is you DO live (legally) in a country you should be allowed to vote there?

Effect on the Brexit vote would be interesting....

	Quote:	Belgianmum
	I wonder how many other leave voters were like you and were technically not entitled to vote.

There's a post about a gazillion pages back on this thread with a link to an article about the multiple votes people received, as well as people voting who shouldn't have.

Will try to plough back and post the link here.

[Clocker]

	Quote:	Belgianmum
	I think you’re right, most of the overseas voters especially those residing in the EU would have voted remain. All of my friends back in a Brussels would have voted remain for sure

Whereas everyone I know in the UK voted 'Leave'. People there have simply had enough.

	Quote:	Clocker
	Whereas everyone I know in the UK voted 'Leave'. People there have simply had enough.

...whereas every single one of my friends in the UK voted remain. An equally meaningless statement.

[amogles]

	Quote:
	So would you accept that is you DO live (legally) in a country you should be allowed to vote there?

At least it would be consistent.

[Belgianmum]

	Quote:	Clocker
	Whereas everyone I know in the UK voted 'Leave'. People there have simply had enough.

I know lots of people in the UK who voted remain so not all of them have had enough.

I also know some who voted leave.

[bigblue2]

	Quote:
	How is it propaganda? Are you saying that the EU funding of the roads is factually incorrect? Or that Scotland is often underfunded because of its distance from Westminster?

these kind of comments piss me off no end, I come from the S.E and worked in London, but as part of my side lines had to travel all over the UK, and to everyone who says London / the S.E get most of the cash I say this, instead of just repeating what the papers tell you get off your arse and have a look!! the S.E have the worst trains and roads by a mile!! the trains are massively over crowded and eye wateringly expensive, not to mention the worst punctuality, our hospitals are constantly in 'special measures' and our police have some of the worst clear up rates in the country - if they even bother to come out to a crime.

Take a train upto that london in rush hour, go on, maybe from one of the towns in kent, oh that's right, you can't as its so expensive your dole money won't cover it, oh and don't park in a station carpark if you value your car.

Ok then drive, good luck with that, paid the congestion charge? the dartford toll? oh and parking - LOL not a chance.

Our roads are terrible, falling apart, no one is willing to spend anything on infrastructure. Scotland and wales get totally free prescriptions, free uni hell even free hospital car parking, we get none of that.

The S.E is the uk's cash cow, yet the rest of the country seem to think we all live in mansions, drive ferrari's and drink champagne all day, and like to shout loudly about it to anyone who'll listen while collecting their tax credits.

Now to top it all off because you f***wits voted leave the whole of the S.E is going to become one big gridlocked lorry park, which no doubt southerners will also get the blame for.

and breath.

[curley]

	Quote:
	...whereas every single one of my friends in the UK voted remain. An equally meaningless statement.

Well, it would show that the person is not willing to be friends with people who differ in opinion.
That is actually a very significant information.

[Belgianmum]

	Quote:	amogles
	With more and more people holding two, three or even more passports, I can see conflicts coming and the concept of "one person, one vote" being undermined. Why should the opinion of one person weigh two or three times as much as that of another person in an EU election, just because that person has more passports? Especially if you consider that several EU countries sell passports for money. At what point does that become selling votes for money? In my view the only solution is that you don't genuinely live in a country, you shouldn't be allowed to vote there.

But those of us with only one nationality are then left with no voting rights at all.
How is that fair?

	Quote:	bigblue2
	Now to top it all off because you f***wits voted leave the whole of the S.E is going to become one big gridlocked lorry park, which no doubt southerners will also get the blame for. and breath.

Don't stress. After Brexit, the UK will have so much money they won't know what to do with it all...

Everyone gets a Dyson and a unicorn, too. Unless you've been out of the UK for 15 years then you can sod right off.

[bigblue2]

	Quote:
	Don't stress. After Brexit, the UK will have so much money they won't know what to do with it all... Everyone gets a Dyson and a unicorn, too. Unless you've been out of the UK for 15 years then you can sod right off.

which dyson?