Open letter to the Minister for Constitutional Reform
Altea
February 29, 2016
Dear John Penrose,
I am writing to you, again, as Minister for Constitutional Reform.
I have just received an exemplary response from the Cabinet Office about the facts relating to the 15-year rule.
I know those.
I am pressing, on behalf of British expats living in the EU, for a change in the facts and that requires political will. May I give you the political issues?
Lord Lexden: “If our fellow countrymen who have lived abroad for more than 15 years are deprived the vote in this all important referendum, it will be because of a preventable accident of timing.”
It was a relatively recent decision by the UK Government to give a referendum not required by law on whether or not the UK should remain in the EU.
It has been the very recent political decision to hold the referendum as soon possible, ie June 23rd 2016, within the period between now and the end of 2017 that has caused our plight.
This Government has the power to act. It has exercised its power to enfranchise the Lords, and the Gibraltarians, and can, also, enfranchise UK expats living in the EU.
We are being deprived of our rights as UK citizens.
You are in the position to set the position straight.
Yours sincerely,
Kathryn Cunningham Ph D
P.S.: I am enclosing a recent article from Costa Blanca News that shows how it looks to people who live here. Please note particularly the third and final paragraphs. In a vote that threatens to be uncomfortably close, it is at the very least careless to exclude the thousands with most first-hand experience of the issues and those with the most to lose.
