MARSEILLE - Journalist and French resident Anita Rieu-Sicart, calls upon all British expats to join the fight for their vote ahead of the 2015 General Election.

Dear Fellow Expat,

  I, like thousands of fellow British Expats, lost my right to vote by the 15 year exclusion rule. I have lived in the Var, South of France for the past 24 years; in retirement and for most of that time have been publishing a small magazine that circulates to English speaking Expats. As a British Citizen. I really resent losing my vote.  

 The 2015 Election is coming up next May, only 7 months away, just over 200 days, in which we expats worldwide can also campaign, and add our weight, and very possibly achieve that vital tipping point. We can fight, we can join in, and we can take part. We can get involved! Don't shrug off "Politics", politics dictates our pensions, tax allowances, and everything else. What is more, we all care about the future for our children and grandchildren.

  Up until pretty recently, it was as if we Expats did not exist, unloved, unwanted, we thought, but behind the scenes all sorts of things were happening, as I have discovered.  Yes, we watched the Electoral Reform Debates in 2012, and 2013, and were incredibly disappointed in the opposition to our voting rights.  

  Despite this, numerous right-minded MPs have been beavering away to correct this injustice.  MPs like Geoffrey Clinton-Brown (Cotswold), now Chairman of the International Office, has been leading the charge for years to restore our right to vote, negotiating, finagling as one has to, in the parliamentary system, and Sir Roger Gale, together with many like-minded MPs, who think it disgraceful that our voting rights have been taken away.

  MPs who recognise the value of expats who create exports, contribute to the UK GDP, and invest in the UK.

  A Committee of Backbench MPs has been working on our behalf, as well as the Speaker’s Committee, and are all totally committed and intent on extending voting rights, and who in the past year insisted on the Electoral Commission extending their efforts to recruit expat voters.

  Well, all these chaps/chapesses - the chaps in the white hats - with the huge support of Conservatives Abroad, recently achieved a signal victory. Just this September Grant Shapps, Conservative Party Chairman, on behalf of the party truly nailed their colours to the mast, and stated, "Get us in in 2015, with a decent working majority, and we will repeal the 15 year rule."

  He trumpeted this to thousands of UK Citizens, home and abroad- saying, "Millions of British citizens live and work across the globe. Many have worked hard, contributed to Britain all their lives, and have close family living in Britain,"

  "Being a British citizen is for life. It gives you the lifelong right to be protected by our military and Foreign Office, and to travel on a British passport. We believe it should also give you the lifelong right to vote."

  You can see where he is coming from. However, the Conservatives have to get a solid working majority in order to do this. Up until now the repeal of the 15-year rule in the Electoral Reform debates has been consistently blocked by collusion from Labour/Liberal MPs. They seem to think all expats will vote the same way.   This is not necessarily true, and should in all truly democratic societies, be totally irrelevant. We should have, as citizens, the right to vote anyway we wish.

  It is particularly ironic that we of all people, who tend to regard ourselves as the cradle of democracy, have been denied our democratic voting rights. Virtually no other countries, certainly in the EU, deny their citizens this right. 

  So what can we do to help this campaign?  A lot. You think it is impossible, it isn't. When you realise how many thousands of us are spread around the globe, of course we can do something. There are at least 2.5 million Expats who still have the right to vote, but unfortunately only around 30,000 have so far registered.  Around another 2.5 million of us have lost the right to vote by the 15-year exclusion rule. But we can all work together to reverse that ruling.

  For a start all you expats who are not affected by the 15 year rule -but who have not yet registered to vote - did you realise that you can as from this past June get online and register, all you need is your National Insurance Number and/or your passport number, it takes maximum 3.5 minutes to do. And bingo you will be getting a postal ballot for the 2015 Election, without any need to re-register.  Also the postal times have been extended so that your postal ballot has plenty of time to reach the UK.

  Do it now: register here.

  And what can the rest of us vote-less expats do? Quite a lot actually.  

  For example you can use all your contacts, your family, children, grandchildren, we are now all so linked up, via internet, via social media, we can achieve miracles.  Canvass all your expat friends, make sure they know about digital registration.  

  Just think how many of us live in Europe, especially pensioners. To give you some meaty figures, there are around 444,500 retired UK pensioners in the EU, 61,550 in France, 106,820 in Spain, etc. and we all pay and paid taxes to the UK,  we all paid into the UK systems all our working lives, otherwise, we would not be getting the pensions. We can muster all our friends and contacts to support us. 

  One can argue the toss about political issues until the cows come home, but the important thing for us expats, is the right to vote.  We should have it. What is more we should have better representation, and lawyer MP Dominic Grieve, former Attorney General, firmly believes we expats should have our own representatives, just as French expats have in their Senate!  Think about it.

  Join in the fight, don't feel frustrated, take part. If we all put our shoulder to the wheel - excuse the wildly mixed metaphors - we can shift mountains!

  Sincerely,

  Anita Rieu-Sicart