Apparently non British, Irish, or Commonwealth citizens will not be allowed to vote in the upcoming EU referendum in the UK.
I haven’t read into the actual law on this, just the media coverage, so caveat emptor, but:
More than 1million foreigners living in Britain will be banned from voting in the EU referendum, the Conservatives have announced, in a significant boost to Eurosceptic campaigners.
It comes after Eurosceptic MPs confronted ministers over the issue amid concerns that pro-Europeans could effectively rig the result by giving EU citizens the decisive vote.
(source)
The language we use is important.
Isn’t it interesting that here we see people living in the UK described as ‘foreigners’ – setting up an instant division – whilst the Scottish Government during the independence referendum process spoke not of ‘foreigners’, but of ‘the Scottish people’, irrespective of where they were from originally?
Isn’t it interesting that the result of the independence referendum was based precisely on the votes of the people who lived there, and not some ethnic idea of what Scottishness is supposed to be? Isn’t it interesting that this wasn’t seen as ‘rigging the result’, but as an integral part of it?
I don’t believe in ethnic politics. I believe in civic politics. Great Britain is a fundamentally racist construct that needs to be dissolved. The sooner the better.
Didn’t a lot of Better Together supporters complain that because they now lived in England, they couldn’t vote in indyref, and that was unfair? At least they’ve got a consistent view of foreigners, which appears to be, “anyone not like me doesn’t deserve a vote”
The British State is merely the final stage of a continuum dating back to the Norman Conquest. It is based entirely on a notion of ethnic and social class that deems itself superior to all others. It is increasingly irrelevant and it’s time for all normal,decent folk in these islands to disassociate themselves with it.
Were people who lived in Scotland but who weren’t nationals allowed to vote on indyref?
EU and Commonwealth Citizens were, yes. Non EU or Commonwealth citizens were not.
Reblogged this on enyfreeeze and commented:
Spot the difference