Lord Goldsmith Citizenship Review has been chewed over in great detail elsewhere; I’ll merely add on the main point of contention that my British identity hasn’t suffered one iota by not being forced as a child to parrot a meaningless mantra every morning in school assembly.
What does disturb me much more is his proposal to remove the right of Commonwealth and Irish citizens to vote in UK general elections; such people are perfectly free to continue contributing to the economic and cultural life of the nation, they can even continue dying on the battlefield, fighting as a member of the British armed forces.
They now, however, can no longer be trusted at the ballot box?
Shameful.
7 comments:
Again, it's a nice thing in theory, but it should be dependent on a reciprocal agreement with the other country/countries.
I have family in Canada and while I'm not certain, I'm fairly sure they aren't able to vote as they haven't taken up Canadian citizenship.
Again, it's a nice thing in theory, but it should be dependent on a reciprocal agreement with the other country/countries.
I wonder will this force the Irish government to review its reciprocal legislation and whether this might cause consternation in NI
Beano,
That's one of the points made by Goldsmith, I don't know if it;s true for all the Cwealth countries, but even so, it seems rather a negative or vindicive approach, imo we should be occupying the moral high ground on this one.
Kloot,
If the proposals are accepted, it'll be interesting to see how it affects the rest of the UK outside England. The SNP have said they won't implement the oath to the Queen (I can't really see our Educ Sec forcing it through either!!).
And if those holding ROI
passports, born and voting in NI are denied the right to vote in Uk elections...
On the other hand if the proposals are limited to England, then it's yet another own goal by Brown against the concept to one, undivided nation.
I wonder will this force the Irish government to review its reciprocal legislation and whether this might cause consternation in NI
Hmmm..correction to my post above, as Ciaran points out, it wouldn't affect those who hold ROI passports but were born in Northern Ireland.
http://orcid.net/2008/03/12/irish_nationals_goldsmiths_citizenship_report
I posted on PULSE that if this goes through, then no doubt it will only apply to England as our wondrous Labour government is only happy to fight English nationalism, while allowing nationalism in the other 3/4 of the UK to be appeased.
I do live in Canada, and cannot vote as I am a UK citizen, but, as a commonwealth citizen I am allowed to hold dual citizenship should I become Canadian (unlikely).
I agree with your own statement, although I'd put it down to sheer incompetence rather than appeasement.
Slighlty off thread, I think PULSE has linked into one of my threads, but I can't access it and see which one, can you help me?
There is a link to your blog in the website promotion forum.
http://www.pulseresources.org/ForumsPro/viewtopic/t=38773.html
Thats the only one I have seen, but wil keep a look out.
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