(l-to-r: Branch Chairman Ben Harris-Quinney, Vice Chairman Leandro Pilbeam, Secretary Paul Gordon, Elliot Abrams, Social Secretary Catherine Gurri, Treasurer Pierre Shepherd)
July began with a major event on the Madrid branch calendar as 10 of our branch members travelled north to a mountain retreat for Campus FAES, a week-long event of lectures and seminars on International Conservatism.
It was a tremendous opportunity for our branch to better integrate with the Spanish conservative movement but also with Conservatives & libertarians from all over the world. Ronald Reagan’s former foreign policy team was well represented with Elliot Abrams and Raymond Tanter, which offered some fantastic insights into the Gipper’s thinking in bringing down the Soviet Union and indeed some transferred thinking on Iran and Islamism. The Nobel Prizewinning economist Edward C. Prescott and Thatcher historian and Director of the IEA, John Blundell also provided a differing viewpoint to Barack Obama’s adage that no notable economists disagree with the bailout package.
(l-to-r: Branch Vice Chairman Leandro Pilbeam, Chairman Ben Harris-Quinney, John Blundell, Treasurer Pierre Shepherd. Secretary Paul Gordon, , Social Secretary Catherine Gurri)
Our Honorary Patron Michael Portillo attended part of the conference and we were able to put across to the international body present some of the issues facing Conservatives in the UK as well as British citizens abroad. I get a particularly good reaction from Americans when informing them that British people who have lived abroad for more than 15 years are disenfranchised to the extent of still being taxed in the UK, and increasingly taxed, but have their right to vote removed. I am hoping some of the recent anti-tax tea party events taking America by storm find their way to Madrid.
(l-to-r: Rt. Hon Michael Portillo, President Aguirre, FAES Director Jaime Garcia-Legaz MP)
The policy of a government to silence its citizens and dependants living abroad by restricting and removing their right to vote was arguably the single biggest mistake Great Britain ever made, and we lost the United States as a result. Of course the devolution and subsequent opposition of Benidorm does not loom on the horizon, but now the problem is at home.
The cynical policy of reducing citizens' voting rights because they would probably vote against the incumbent is as endemic of the poverty in leadership and politics as the recent expense scandal, and in my view, a citizen’s right to vote is more significant than their right to know how much their MP has claimed on expenses for their wisteria trellis. I hope that we will soon see the mock incredulity of the media applied in fond helpings of outrage to the cause of our ex-pat citizens.
It is important to be clear on the issues facing ex-pats, even if one thinks they have no interest in UK politics generally, or even no right to that interest if they have lived abroad for 15 years.
Firstly, it isn’t just people who have lived abroad for 15 years that can’t vote in the UK, anyone who lives abroad will be officially told they can postal vote, but the system doesn’t work. Conservatives Abroad advise people not to postal vote unless they want their vote to sit in a postal sorting station for a week and then be binned.
All that remains is therefore proxy voting, which relies on ex-pats having a trusted party in the UK from their home constituency whom they feel they can ask to vote on their behalf. The right to vote should never rely on anyone else, or overcoming social awkwardness to ask a faint acquaintance to drive to a polling station after work to fulfil your democratic process.
Those who have lived abroad for more than 15 years often have begun to draw their pension, and on that pension are being taxed. I can’t imagine anyone who should be more interested in Government spending and the inevitable massive tax hikes which will follow than the retired people who are relying on every penny of income.
Ex-pats are often also in need of support from Westminster on a range of issues such as the LUV law, that has caused many ex-pat Brits to lose their homes in Spain without compensation. The Italian system of having two MPs to represent their ex-pats in the Italian Parliament is excellent, progressive and engaged with the kind of mobile world we live in now. The UK system is moving rapidly away from democracy, and is more reminiscent of the unaccountable EU, than the mother of democracy. When Italy is forcing questions on the authority of the British democracy, now is the time for change.
In order to remind us of what we are rapidly losing and what we once so proudly held, I am very pleased to be organising the first Winston Churchill exhibit in Spain to be held in Madrid in 2010, which will showcase the old man’s life.
In planning the exhibition, I was privileged whilst a few days in the UK to visit Churchill College in Cambridge and the Churchill archive. To see the original speeches with notes, edits, last minute omissions and additions was to view the blueprints of our history. The fact that, due to becoming woefully unprepared for rain whilst in Spain I was caught for 40 minutes under a tree in a rainstorm outside the college, was a small price to pay for the presence, and much needed reminder of greatness in our now heavily worn halls of power.
I am currently a Conservative Abroad in the United States touring our branches here and training with YBF; next month will hold the details.
(The tree which offered some shelter along the Cambridge backs during a violent rainstorm.)
Today is the final day for purchasing tickets to the Young Britons’ Foundation Summer Party.
