A bunch of rich people

EU treaty and The restriction of the WFP to certain pensioner residents in the EU.

One of our colleagues has corresponded with the EU, about the UK governments fraudulent withdrawal of the Winter Fuel Payment to UK pensioners living in some European countries and has received the following EU Reply:- 
Thank you for this enquiry. As you will already know the EU comprises an area in which the free movement of EU nationals is ensured. This freedom of movement is supported by rules which provide for common treatment of social security rights and equal treatment on the provision of social security benefits. These rules are set out in Regulation 883/2004. These rules provide, in outline: 

1. That you are subject to the social security legislation of one member state at any time (Article 11). 

2. Cash benefits payable under the legislation of one member state should not be reduced on the fact that the recipient is residence in another member state (Article 7). 

3. The United Kingdom has, until recently, provided a "Winter Fuel Payment" to UK pensioners resident in the UK only. This was prohibited under EU law (case C-Case C‑503/09, Stewart). The UK appears to have amended the rules in order to provide the benefit to pensioners resident in a number of countries only, ostensibly based on the weather in those countries. The EU rules do not provide for any available justification for this, and this does look, at first sight as though this is unlawful discrimination. 

4. We would recommend that you either look to obtaining a political solution through the EU institutions, such as by contacting your local MEP or making a complaint to the European Commission: 

http://ec.europa.eu/atwork/applying-eu-law/make_a_complaint_en.htm 

It is clearly essential that the Statutory Instrument laid by the DWP [2014 No. 3270] is suppressed. There are two actions that can be taken 1.:- Complete a complaint to the EU (link is below)-  This will be difficult except for the most informed!

OR/AND  Send a message to the Works & Pension Select committee.  workpencom@parliament.uk (Clerk's name is Mrs. Carol Oxborough) in the following form:-
"There is increasing evidence that the Statutory Instrument 2014 No. 3270 issued by the DWP infringes treaty agreements between the UK and the EU on the matter of Social Security co-ordination. It would be wise to suppress the SI before it causes embarrassment." or some other phrases of your own invention.

VOTES FOR ALL!!!!!!

On 2 December 2014, a bill to scrap the 15 year limit on overseas voting was presented to the House of Commons and unanimously accepted.  It is due to go to second reading in March 2015.  This represents a unique opportunity to overturn the 15 year rule, perhaps even before the 2015 General Election, and certainly before any UK EU referendum takes place.

This affects British expats who have lived out of the UK for 15 years or more: expat professionals with international careers; second generation expats, many of whom will come of age while resident abroad without the right to vote anywhere in national elections; and pensioners.

Labour and the Lib Dems have dropped their opposition to this bill and, given the low volume of legislation passing through the House of Commons, there is ample time to pass such a bill in time for the General Election if the Government were to introduce a Government Bill early in 2015.  This would need the agreement of both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats as coalition partners.

Supporters of the campaign to repeal the 15 year rule are asked to write to (ex)MPs, especially Liberal Democrats, to persuade them to encourage the government to introduce legislation to repeal the 15-year rule early in the New Year, and to persuade family and friends resident in the UK to do so too, using the following suggested text:

 "On 2 December 2014, a ten minute bill to scrap the 15 year limit on overseas voting was presented to the House of Commons by Geoffrey Clifton-Brown and unanimously accepted.  Supporters of the bill are now calling for the introduction of a new Bill in government time, which would give British citizens the right to vote in national elections in perpetuity.   Please encourage the government to introduce legislation to repeal the 15-year rule early in 2015 to enable the bill to be adopted before the General Election."

You are having a laugh Dave!

Wearing an immaculate hi vis outfit and hard hat Cameron whilst visiting the Medway, prior to the November 20 by-election, he accused ukip of being a party of stunts! 

David Cameron has warned voters that victory for Ukip in the Rochester and Strood by-election would help establish the party.

What he doesn’t realise is that it is the current crop of politicians who are facilitating this, because they stopped listening to the electorate decades ago, and have taken us all for a ride.
Large numbers of the population are looking to UKIP to give the Whitehall village a good kick up the rear end.

“Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their backs to the fire, and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.”

-Abraham Lincoln

OK!  Scotland votes to stay.

Does this mean anything to us?

The Scottish Referendum has gravely shaken the Westminster Politicians -  One Politician wrote yesterday from Westminster– “Have never known such uncertainty. There will be many headless chickens, no matter what the referendum result. Not only who should vote, but what we are voting for.”

A correspondent in Spain writes 

“AFTER the next General Election, provided the Conservative Party is re-elected, they say that they will abolish the 15 year rule (once you have been non-resident in the UK for 15 years you forfeit the right to vote).  All expats will be eligible to vote for life by registering in their last UK constituency.”

Promises!  Why should we wait till after the next election?

If the Conservatives are re-elected – then OUR (?) Referendum follows. OURS!  Would we be able to vote in OUR referendum as to whether WE remain European Citizens?

WE NEED THE VOTE NOW! Not just a promise in the future.  The Labour Party is silent – The Lib-Dems say the matter will be examined.  Why?

We urge you to write to the MP of your last constituency where you lived in UK and ask for their support. 

Lists can be found at www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps  Regardless of your political persuasion we are stronger together.

Below are some of the possible consequences of leaving the EU:

1  Retired residents living in the EU would have no more health cover and would need expensive full health cover.  Age would prevent some from even getting this.

2  The UK would be able to freeze state pensions as we would be living in a foreign country – the power for this in law already exists.

3  All UK citizens would cease to be European citizens and need new passports.

4  No UK citizen would be protected under EU law concerning freedom of movement, capital and services.  Investments could be affected.

5  Individual states could impose customs tariffs/taxes on goods, services and capital. (France used to impose tax on incoming money)

6  People could not necessarily freely move from the UK as an employee, find work, set up business in an EU country.

7  Any EU state would be free to impose law as it wishes on foreign residents – property, bank accounts, residency.  Extra restrictions on property purchase and sale.

No doubt this list is far from complete but gives an idea of some  of the consequences  of leaving the EU.       

Want to help stop this (?) then write to your MP for support so that we can vote in the NEXT General Election.

Send this to an MP and ask that they put pressure on their leaders to call for a life-time VOTE for all British Citizens NOW.

Brian Cave  - lefourquet@gmail.com

 

www.votes-for-expat-brits.com & www.votes-for-expat-brits-blog.com

PLEASE CAN I HAVE SOME MORE?

Yesterday I received a begging e mail from Iain Duncan Smith asking for a donation of £10 for the Conservative Party. I was flabbergasted, this coming from a man who is intent on ringing every last pound out of the people he is supposed to represent.  

I have been a Conservative supporter all my life, but I can tell you now, that they will never get my support, but nor will I support the other three “main line” parties. They are all, so far removed from the lives of ordinary people, that they all deserve a good shake up, and at the moment the only man who looks capable of doing that is Nigel Farage and the UKIP Party.

Unfortunately our politicians have proved themselves, as a group, to be the most untrustworthy and dishonourable group of people in our country, In fact I would go so far as to say that they have proved themselves to be liars and thieves, and so crooked they couldn’t lie in bed straight. 

A City financier was made a Tory peer on Friday after given the party more than £330,000 just weeks earlier. ‘This appointment further cements the impression that to get into the House of Lords, all you have to do is write a fat cheque to a political. 

A child abuse scandal is threatening to engulf the whole of the political heirachy, and is becoming more and more murky. It was announced recently, that mysteriously, papers that had previously been buried in the archives, relating to senior politicians involved in this scandal, have now disappeared.

In recent years MPs were almost collectively involved in the expenses scandal. They called it a scandal but in fact it was thievery. To use an analogy, can you imagine a shoplifter, who, having been caught, offers to pay for the stolen items, and then is released from custody. It wouldn’t happen. Yet our politicians were caught with their hands in the till, and only a handful managed to get themselves arrested. The rest were allowed to repay their fraudulent expenses. WHY?

Recently we were all asked to remember our dead soldiers from the first world war, and my thoughts were “is our country the place that our relatives died for” and the answer is NO it isn’t. 

Our politicians have let us down badly, and should be ashamed. The speed up of this decline has increased over the past 30 years, and my opinion is that we are ruled by a group of professional politicians, who have not seen a meaningful days work in their lives. They have no idea what everyday living is all about. Recently, Foreign Office minister Mark Simmonds decided to quit, supposedly because he can't 'stretch' £120000 to live in the capital. The whole party wants to come down and smell the coffee.

Cameron is as far removed from normal life as it is possible to get. Coming from a privileged background, when did he ever do the family shop in Tesco. It would do him and us, the world of good if he was forced to live like the rest of us for a month, he would then have the insight into everyday living. 

When the Conservatives came to power they were already at a disadvantage, after the disaster that had been left by the sulking Brown, who had given the impression he knew what he was doing, but proved to be one of the biggest failures in modern day politics. Of course the “socialist” Blair before him, had only one thought in mind, and that has proved to be his biggest success, how to make his bank balance bigger. Despite the financial difficulty our country is in, Cameron still insists on borrowing to be able to give money to failing countries around the world, and would prefer to do that, than look after the interests of his own people who are in financial straights themselves. He has preferred to spend more time on giving “gays” marriage rights than sorting out a failing country.

Osborne, our part time Chancellor has, in fairness, reduced some of our debt, and managed to get the economy moving into positive territory, but at what cost to the ordinary man in the street. Families have been decimated and are poorer now than they were ten years ago. There is still no sign of any improvement in family circumstances after four years of Tory ruke, but I am sure there will be some cynical handouts next year, prior to the General Election.

May has totally destroyed the Police Force, and turned it into a quivering political jelly. The moral of the police Service is so low, that I am amazed that people want to start any sort of police career. She has proved to be inept at sorting out illegal immigrants and even more so at getting convicted illegals dismissed from our country. Dominic Grieve, one of the countries top law officers in the Conservative government, said yesterday that it would be a disaster if Britain walked out of the European human rights court. This is the very court that is binding the hands of our own judges to eject undesireable people from our shores. Many of whom have already entered illegally. What chance do we stand of getting our country back?

Where the police were always proud to say they were apolitical, they have now been dragged into politics by the introduction of Police Commissioners. This was not wanted by the majority of the people, but forced through at great expense.  Proof of its failure can be seen, when you look at the Crime Commissioner for Kent. A schoolteacher who has tried to introduce her policies, as if she was still talking to her young pupils in class. The infighting between the Commissioners for Norfolk and Suffolk has already cost untold waste of money. The list goes on.

Duncan Smith has proved to be one of the biggest bullies, politics has ever seen. Whilst most people are in agreement that the benefits system has got to be reformed, his manner in going about it has amounted to the behaviour of the classic bully. Putting in place the bedroom tax, knowing full well that there was not enough affordable housing for people to move to, resulting in them paying more tax, is almost like committing robbery.

He threw a tantrum, after being told by the EU Court that his refusal to pay the winter fuel allowance to pensioners, was illegal, simply because they had taken up the right to live elsewhere in Europe. He then huffed and puffed, and has come up with an idea to remove the winter fuel allowance to pensioners living abroad, by using spurious statistics. First he set the temperature in one town in the south west of England as the bench mark to receive the winter fuel payment. He then set his eyes on Portugal as a whole, and decided that it was too warm for pensioners to receive their payment. Next came Spain, and once again, forgetting that the north of Spain is as cold as anywhere in the UK, the temperature in the narrow southern strip of Coast, was used to boost the overall average temperature for the whole of the country. Then came France, and Oh shock, horror, the average temperature was lower, and so the pensioners living there would be eligible. ‘But how do we get around it’, he asked. Include the tropical territorial islands of Guadaloupe, Reunion, Tahiti. In that way the average temperature is now higher.  After came Italy, but whichever way Duncan Smith wriggled he couldn’t get over the fact, that because of the mountainous spine of Italy, the temperature is lower, and so pensioners would still receive their winter fuel payment. The only other EU countries coming within the scope of “hotter” being Greece, Malta, and Cyprus. And so we have another two tier system of benefits, good for some, but not for others.

Not content with hitting overseas pensioners in this way. The new debate, is to also remove their personal allowance on Tax. This is the tax free allowance that all taxpayers get, and could cause a loss of income of £4000 per year. This is still under discussion, but if implemented, could cause a mass return of OAPs living throughout Europe, putting even more strain on the UK infrastructure than at present. 

The question is how can a government get away with ideas like this, for a large group of its citizens? Well the answer is easy. DENY them the vote. In that way they can have no effect on any decisions made about them.

Deny them the vote? You may ask. Surely not! We live in a democracy, where everyone has a vote? But no, many millions of our own citizens are denied the vote, simply because they chose to live elsewhere in Europe. This is, at the same time as our troops are fighting and dying in Afghanistan to introduce democracy. Crazy isn’t it?

Gove, who is like Marmite, either loved or loathed. He has brought about so many changes to the education system that teachers spent more time reading the regulations than teaching. He then introduced one of the most hated and spiteful pieces of legislation, preventing parents taking their children away from school for a two week holiday, without getting fined. As the saying goes, “what is good for the goose is good for the gander”. Why didn’t he at the same time introduce a penalty for teachers closing schools at a whim, for striking, or teacher meetings, or bad weather. We all know that the unions wouldn’t allow it.

Fox and Hammond, our erstwhile defence ministers have supervised the run down of our military to dangerous levels, sacking many experienced and valuable soldiers, sailors and airmen, some of whom had just come back from the front line. They then promptly spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on advertising for new recruits, whose pay would obviously be lower. It is unknown how many very senior officers litter the offices of the Ministry of Defence, but you can bet that with the old boys network in place they will be well protected.

You may well ask, “Are there any honest politicians”. Of course there are, but unfortunately they are in the minority, and invariably are sidetracked in order to cause less waves. In my lifetime I can single out one of the honest politicians who was ridiculed at the time, but who predicted so much that has come true and that is Enoch Powell.

I am hoping that Nigel Farage will have the same honesty, and that even though he is unlikely to form a government, he will cause a enough ripples in British politics, that politicians will start listening to the people they represent again. For that reason I will be encouraging as many of my friends and relatives to vote UKIP in next years elections.

Will you be able to vote in the UK general election in 2015?
The answer is “no” if you are a child, an individual suffering from mental illness (such that you are confined within a mental institution), an imprisoned criminal or an expat having lived abroad for more than 15 years.

But is this really fair? An increasing number of expats think not.

If you are British citizen and have been registered to vote in the UK in the last 15 years, you are still entitled to vote in the UK general election and European elections even if you live abroad. You need only to complete a simple registration process. However, if you have not been a registered voter in the UK within this time frame your right to vote is defunct.

Unlike the United States, Switzerland and most other developed countries in the world, among which most of the member states of the EU, including France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain are included, the UK does not allow citizens having resided overseas for more than 15 years to participate in parliamentary elections.

This issue is of particular note as we approach the next general election in 2015. Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to hold a referendum on the question of whether the UK should leave the European Union if a Conservative government is elected.

“It seems profoundly wrong to me that British citizens living in EU member states, whose lives and livelihoods would be directly and dramatically affected by a withdrawal from the EU, should not be allowed a vote in the general election next year,” says Graham Richards of the Votes for Expat Brits Campaign. “It could also mean that, in the event of a referendum, these British citizens would not be able to express themselves on one of the most important issues in their lives.”

What do you think?
If you would like to support the campaign poll click here:

 http://votes-for-expat-brits.com/Sign-up-Poll.php.