Red Rose Forum

Campaign Background

Prior to the enactment of the 2001 overseas voting legislation, a vigorous campaign was spearheaded by the LICC, the Brussels and Geneva LI branches to abolish restrictions and restore full voting rights, or at least to maintain the 20 year limit as opposed to the 5 year limit proposed by the Government on the recommendations of its parliamentary select committee. The campaign targeted members of the Houses of Lords and Parliament, Government and party leaders who would be voting on the proposed legislation, the parliamentary select committee, the media, Brits abroad, the public at large, as well as concerned MEPs, European socialist groups and civic leaders abroad.

The strategy included meetings with MPs and the Lords in London, LI members writing to their MPs in their former constituencies, and sending letters, articles and press releases to the press. Denis McShane, MP and former Minister for Europe, spoke strongly on our behalf on the floor of the House, as did Martin Linton who was convinced by our arguments. The 'use or lose it' clause, proposal was put forward to the Government by the LICC.

As Hon. President of the Geneva branch, Denis McShane gave us invaluable advice. We set up and ran a global cross-party, multi British communities campaign and drafted the joint letter sent to Government and party leaders. To mobilise awareness and support, we organised town forum meetings for the British community resident in Switzerland and neighbouring France, as well as municipality meetings with other socialist groups, reached out to gained the support of socialist MEPs at Brussels, and had the issue covered by national press and World Radio Geneva.

Key Documents for the Case & Action Taken

1) Rights of British nationals living abroad to vote in British, Local, Regional, (i.e Northern Ireland, Scottish and Welsh) Parliamentary and European Elections (4pp)

This background paper of 1999 by Cerdic Warrillow of the LI Geneva Branch, comprises:

1. Summary of the 4^th report of the parliamentary select committee on Home Affairs - Electoral Law and Administration.
2. Critical Comments on the Select Committee's Appraisal
3. Conclusion

Annex: Situation in the European Member States

The paper concludes that: 'The right to vote without time restrictions is wholly consistent with relevant international instruments. This is made clear in the Matthews judgement in the European Court of Human Rights 18 Feb 1999.'

This judgement is in favour of securing domestic rights according to European legislation, and refers to Article 3 of Protocol No 1. It surely must be a precedent.

 

2) Matthews Case, European Court of Human Rights 18 Feb 1999.' (25pp)

Documents 1) and 2) were working documents for forum town meetings in Switzerland, neighbouring France, Paris, media, and lobbying British parliamentarians and party leaders.

 

3) Letter to the Home Secretary 18 December 1999

This letter expressed the above concerns of all Brits abroad. It was drafted by Steven Oates of the Geneva Branch, was signed by Sylvia Moore, President LI Geneva Branch and Paul Godden, Chair British Conservatives of Switzerland. It was copied to Blair, Hague, Widdecombe, members of the Neill Committee, LI in Brussels, New York and published in the LI Journal, The Beacon.

The letter cogently argues beyond a shadow of doubt: 'That right to vote is a fundamental tenet of the British Constitution is self evident. But, you will certainly want to refer also to international instruments…It will be difficult to pretend that resident citizens are better informed than non-residents… It is surprising that the illiberal proposal to restrict voting rights should actually be made at a time when the trend towards European level thinking - not to mention globalisation - is stronger than ever'

Positive replies were received from William Hague and Charles Kennedy (10 Jan 2000) while the Home Office (26 February 2000) repeated the findings of the parliamentary select committee, but guardedly acknowledged that: 'The Government does consider that returning to the original five year qualifying period may go too far in the other direction' and that there was leeway for Labour International's proposal. In fact 'The Government undertook to look further at this proposal…'

 

4) Hansard, 10 January 2000 (5pp)

Excerpt of parliamentary debate with Denis MacShane's forceful, pertinent remarks

 

5) Report Stage of the Political Parties Election and Referendum Bill, 13/O3/ 2000 (21pp)

 

6) Correspondence & Action on the Linton/Miller Amendment (February - March 2000)

This comprises correspondence between concerned parliamentarians such as Martin Linton, Denis MacShane, Dominic Grieve (parliamentary leader of the Conservatives), and Labour International at Geneva, to gain support for the amendment by attending parliamentary sessions, lobbying MPs, issuing news release and writing letters to the press. Linton requested LI members and Conservatives to attend in the Public Gallery on 15 February 2000 when the amendment was debated in Standing Committee G. The LICC set up a briefing meeting with the PPLP Home Affairs Committee on 16 February. The text submitted by the LICC benefitted from Steven Oates substantial input. We contacted Dr Phyllis Starkey, member of the National Policy Forum whose election campaign candidature for Milton Keynes was supported financially by LI Geneva branch.

 

7) News release and letters to the press December 1999 - March 2000

News releases prepared by Sylvia Moore and circulated, included The Right to Vote, 27 December 1999, and In the Lords Hands, 3 April 2000. Letters to the press were written and published by James Walston, Brian Turner, for The Guardian Weekly, 9 March 2000, Sylvia Moore - Voteless in Marbella, 5 February 2000, The Economist.

 

8) Overseas Voting Rights: Where we got to, 28 February 2003

Steven Oates prepared for the LICC, the status quo and proposals for moving on. Steven suggested as one course of action an application to the High Court under the Human Rights Act.

 

9) Expat Living, The Weekly Telegraph February 2005

'It's time to exercise your constitutional right to vote in the next UK election', is a 2 page article by Sir Dick Pantlin, veteran campaigner for overseas voting rights.

 

10) Correspondence between Sir Dick Pantlin and Steven Oates 9 - 10 February 2005

Subsequent to Sir Dick Pantlin's February article in the Telegraph, Steven Oates, corresponded with Sir Dick on the merits of a court ruling, (see LI website in POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT MATTERS - TALKING POINTS, CIVIL RIGHTS EROSION, by Sylvia Moore, Issue no 3 28 March 2005)by Sylvia Moore,

 

11) 'VOTES AT RISK' French News (no. 190, March 2005))

The editor brought to the forefront this sorry state of affairs urging British citizens abroad to use it or lose it after 15 years' residence abroad. He stressed that: 'In the modern world it is commonplace to live abroad and should not entail loss of rights dearly bought with a lifetime of work', and pointed out the inconsistency that civil servants working abroad do not lose these rights.

Following his article was a letter from Tom Kennedy, HM Consul General at Bordeaux explaining who can vote and how to register from overseas, referring readers to the Electoral Commission's leaflet launched on 6 February 2005 www.electoralcommission .org.uk)

The editor brought up Sir Dick Pantlin's fear that if 'overseas voters do not register in sufficient numbers they risk losing their rights'. He noted that legal consultations are underway to see if an application to the European Court could be successful in compelling the British government to abolish the restriction. The heated debate continued in the April edition of French News.

 

12) Correspondence between the LICC and the Electoral Commission

In a letter to the Electoral Commission of 14 January 2005, LICC Chair Tim Clapham brought up the LICC's concerns and requested the Electoral Commission to do more to facilitate overseas voting registration. In its reply of 16 February to the LICC's queries, the Electoral Commission noted: Electoral registration is the sole responsibility of local councils, full details of which are available on www.aboutmyvote.co.uk. The commission is currently developing a postcode search which will allow people to enter a postcode and be provided with their local council electoral registration office contact. There are plans to review out of country voting.

 

13) Meeting & Correspondence between Sir Dick Pantlin and Sylvia Moore

I met Sir Dick at Brussels on 22 April 2005 to exchange campaign experiences, and discuss future strategies. He provided the following useful documents, already circulated to LICC members:

Overseas Elector voting rights by Dick Pantlin 20 April 2005

Analysis of e-mail received: Weekly Telegraph article, Feb 2005 no 707

Sir Dick has been informal adviser to the Electoral Commission for the last year and was responsible for ensuring that it would circulate voting rights information on its website. Through Sir John Kerr, Head of the FCO, he also ensured that voting rights information would be available at British consulates world wide.

 

Campaign Relaunch

Measures to be considered for the campaign relaunch include:

- LICC consultations to obtain expert opinion from legal counsel and relevant secretariats already underway. - Taking the issue to the courts, for which judicious timing, a sympathetic victim for the case, and financial means to pay for it are pre-requisites. - Conferring with the Labour Party's National Executive and other committees and relobbying members of both houses. - Running a public awareness programme through British consulates, British community associations abroad, the media. - Making a petition to Downing street signed by Brits abroad. The petition could be hand delivered by a celebrity living abroad, already well known as ambassador for related human rights matters, such as Roger Moore, Phil Collins, resident in Switzerland. - The Geneva branch at its 8 May 2005 meeting agreed we should press on with renewing the campaign, including cross party action, and advised that as before several people would need to be active to be successful. Steven Oates is willing to continue as legal adviser and look into pursuing a case in the courts and I am willing to continue as political adviser. - As the electoral commission can make submissions to parliament, we can request they may a submission on overseas voting rights. As proposed by Tim Clapham, Steven and I with Tim would be able to visit the electoral commission in London to discuss this and other relevant issues, as convenient.

 

Note: If you wish to consult the full texts cited above, please refer to the respective websites and to the. LI Geneva branch secretary for its reports, correspondence and news releases..

 

2 June 2005