Expats are country-less after 15 years, did you know?
The debate about this In/Out referendum thing has already started to rumble and grumble. Everyone has an opinion, of course, and everyone thinks their opinion is right. There have already been stories of ‘this would happen’ and ‘that would happen’ and ‘what a disaster’ and ‘we’re better off out of it’ and it’s the usual kneejerk reaction from a lot of people, as anything to do with change always is. In this case, it’s only the thought of change that seems to have sparked people off. It’s a debate that’s going to run and run until the votes are counted.

At the moment though it’s all speculation as I, for one, have not seen any lists or details of what it will mean to anyone; I’ve not seen any clarification on the effects an Out vote would directly have on me. I’m looking at the expat view of course my own view as there are potentially things that could affect me, and us, and everyone who is a UK citizen living abroad. But, until I get the definitive news on exactly what that means, then there’s no point getting all uppity about how those living abroad might be affected. But, the debate has raised another question and issue, and that is to do with the rule that: Anyone living away from the UK for longer than 15 years loses their right to vote. Whether you agree with this or not, this is the case.

And what that means for some folk here on Symi is that they can’t, at the moment, vote in any UK elections, despite the facts that they were born there, have paid their pension there, have paid taxes there, maybe own a house there, have family there and are British. A person of 15 years or more away from their homeland has no say in their homeland anymore. Okay, some people say ‘Why should they? They don’t live here.’ Fair enough, and some don’t have any contact with the UK at all, in which case those people probably would not care about a vote anyway. (Unless it means they can no longer live where they are living.)

But then there are others, those who stay in touch with what’s happening and have an interest in family, property, investments, land, savings, heritage, their mother country etc. All those things are still part of their lives and yet have no right to vote after 15 years away. Is that right? Is ‘because it’s how it’s always been’ a good enough answer to the question of why should they? Well, it’s up to the individual to decide on that one, but what some people may not realise is that these people don’t have the right to vote in their country of choice either.

No, not even if y are married here. Unless you become, in our case, a Greek citizen, you will, after 15 years away from your homeland (UK in this case) have no right to vote anywhere except in the local council elections in Greece and in the European elections (at the moment. Leave Europe and the only thing these folk can vote for is their local mayor). You cannot vote for the Greek government even though you pay your taxes here, contribute to the economy, work in the schools, the medical and other professions, you can’t vote in the UK as you no longer live there even if you do pay some taxes there (interest on savings, or other accounts etc.) even though you may own a property there, even though your loved ones, family, parents or children are there and affected by the government… You end up, after 15 years, being in a limbo of no-voice, and the only power you have over higher powers is the chance to vote in your local council elections and in Europe.

So, what do you do? Well, a lot of readers know Jean, founder of the famous Jean And Tonic Bar on Symi and Jean is one of those who fall outside of the 15 years; she is not alone. She has started a petition through Change.org to have this issue debated. Whether you think it’s a good idea or not, you may want to go and see the page and find out what this petition is all about. Support or not, it’s up to you, but it is a question worth debating at least. Only please don’t debate it with me. If in favour then add your name to the list of supporters and ‘sign’ the petition. If not, then simply don’t bother. After all, one doesn’t need to do anything to maintain a status quo, you just need to ignore other people’s views. Click here for the Petition.

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Windy Symi
It was what you might call windy on Sunday. The sea was white with a hint of blue (do they still make those paint colours? ‘White with a hint of something nondescript’ etc.) and you could see the surface water being blown along over the sea. The patrol boat was out and about turning around constantly and ready for action, and it must have been pretty cold out there. It was pretty cold up here with the roof rattling and the wind blowing in under various doors. The new quilt curtain in the sitting room held out most of the gale and then doubled as a cover on the bed at night.

I spent some time pottering around with old CDs at the weekend, looking through that old pile of backups to see what was in them. I came across a couple of old plays I’d written, first draft of at least. One of them looks finished and tells quite a cute little story, I may use that again sometime. The other is a farce but I’d only written act one and a lot of very detailed notes. It’s called ‘Vile Bags’ and is about two old friends, in the musical theatre world, trying to practical joke each other all the time. All good fun until things go wrong of course. I am not sure I will do anything with that one as I haven’t studied farce structure and I know it’s not just a case of writing in a vicar who loses his trousers.

I also fed our strays, as we do just about every day. The only day they have to fend from the bins is when it’s raining as they are sheltering and their food would get washed away. But every other day one of us goes up there with leftovers and some biscuits and a tin of food. We regularly have around 10 bin cats and three chickens each day, the most we have seen there is 20 cats, two hens and a cockerel. I found some old bird seed I’d bought by accident so the chickens got some specialist food one day. We bought the huge sack of cat biscuits from Michaelis as the Symi Pet Corner, down at the bottom of the Kali Strata. He delivered it up to Georgios on his moped for us; next time we’re going to work on getting him to deliver it right to our door.

And then Monday came along and after a good night’s sleep, I was ready for the pump-repair man who came to fix our water issues. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn’t, and it sounds/feels like there is air in the system. Actually, as I am writing this he is still here, so I will have to let you know the outcome. I’m needed in the other house as our own cat wants feeding. Again. He’s looking at me with that stare of: ‘It’s been over half an hour since we last checked the kitchen what are you waiting for?’ Now he is starting to look really fed up, so I will stop typing and go and see to the master.

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The joy of names – and some photos from the weekend to show you the changing weather

It was a weekend of changing weather with May-like temperatures and sun on Saturday (and other days recently) and a storm overnight followed by cloud and wind, but blue skies and certainly not cold, on Sunday. We were outside at a barbeque on Saturday in t-shirts, getting a tan and enjoying the view of the hills around the village, and some other malarkey.

Last week’s lesson in commas went down a lot better than I expected, and thanks for the comments. I’ll do more about that kind of grammar thing in due course, and there will be more discussion on the ‘Brexit’ referendum as time goes by too I dare say. Now that it’s official and a date is set, as I understand it, there is only one good outcome I can see from a ‘Yes’ (leave Europe) vote, and that is that David Cameron would probably have to resign. I’m not living in the UK so I don’t get all the details but from what I pick up from others in social media and on some news pages etc., it’s currently a close run thing between yes and no, but once word gets out that Cameron would resign if the country voted to leave Europe, then I can see everyone rushing to vote to leave, just to get rid of him.

The same that I see a lot of people wanting to vote to leave, thinking that it will mean an end to the immigration problems in Calais, the ‘Stack’ on the M20, and things like, ‘no more straight cucumbers, yippee!’ As if the answer to the ills of the world lay in the shape of a vegetable. These are, I think, pretty near-sighted reasons for leaving and come from folk who believe 100% what they read in their daily newspapers. And you know my thoughts on them! Particularly in regard to the old question, ‘Who is running the country?’ Answer: the gutter press, it seems. As for us; well, Neil is registered for a postal vote, no hassles there and me… Well, my story is a complicated one due to my name and variations thereof. I’ve just had a friend complete an ‘Attestation’ form for me to confirm that I am who I am. Why? Well…

I’m not going to go into details, but often people ask me why I am called James and I say because it is my name, and it is. Unfortunately I have two others and one of them has a variable and that variable was long used as my first name (which it isn’t) and so, when starting out at 18, I used it for banks, doctors, work, everything really, and also signed my name with it. Then comes along something called the Greek tax system and associated authorities and the issue of explaining that the name I am known by is not actually one of the names in my passport; so I reverted back to the real first name. In Greece, you see, not only do you need a first name (which comes second) and a last name (which comes first) you often have to use a family name as well. Example:

The barge working on the new jetty

At the Alpha Bank I am Collins James Richard (not my name, my father’s name). In the IKA system I was Collins James Richard Sar- party of my mother’s name. And in other cases I have been Collins James Edward Tobias Richard Sarah – just to add to the confusion. (Neil’s a Gosling Neil Ethel on at least one piece of official documentation.) So, when I applied to register to vote in the up-coming debacle, I was told that my info given did not match the info on file at Department of Works and Pensions. I assumed this was to do with my names. So I tried again, moving from putting my full name, as on my passport, to using the shortened version of the last name; still no good. I then wondered if it was a case of me having used the short version of my third name as my first name as I was always called by that name… But who knows? No one can help unless I fill out another form and post it off, which I will do this week. The joy of names, eh?

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Vote to stay in Europe – or else
As I mentioned the other day, I am in the midst of finding out whether I am legitimate or not. That is, legitimate to vote in the upcoming British referendum on leaving the European Union. As I write I am waiting to hear which side of the cusp I am on; I may or may not be able to vote as I left the UK 15 years ago. Well, to be exact, we left for a year’s trial in August 2002 and I finally ‘signed off’ from all things official (tax, house, utilities etc.) in April 2004. However, the last time I filled out an electoral roll form was in 2001 before that year’s general election. I think (and am waiting to hear) that my 16 years could count from that date, and, as it would have been before June (when that general election was held, on June 7^th) my official ‘16 years since last registered’ might well start from, say, January 2001. Bottom line: I may not be eligible to vote in this vital referendum and, thus, need all my readers to do it for me.

Bear in mind that my view is a distant one; I’ve not lived in the UK for a disputed 16 years (actually it will be 15 years come August this year). I am picking up worrying thoughts and opinions from such unbiased (a-hem) places as Facebook, The Daily Mail (I DON’T read it but others do and comment on it), online news and websites and the impression I get is that some short-sighted folk in the UK are going to vote to leave Europe. That, in my opinion would be a disaster.

Why? Well, all of this is purely my conjecture and may well be wrong, but if British citizens are no longer European citizens there are going to be travel restrictions at best, loss of jobs and income, loss of labour, loss of funding, health care and all kinds of other things besides. Expats, for example, may find themselves in the same boat as, say, our Afghan friends on Symi who have to clear visa requirements and travel to Athens regularly to sort out paperwork. Same as any Americans, or Australians would. Okay, so local powers-that-be may be able to put in procedures for that; perhaps we will only have to register once per year, but that might mean that the authorities say ‘No’ you can’t renew and so, away you go, back to the crumbling UK, or another country who might take you.

A few other possibilities:

• House owners could be forced to sell their foreign property back to that country, no doubt at a much reduced price.
• Business owners could have to sell their business, or have a local ‘representative’ act for them and sign said business into their name. (Remember the scams and fraud of years gone by?)
• Euro-businesses in the UK would probably leave the country, taking jobs and some tax income with them.
• Those working UK citizens abroad who contribute to the tax system would go and the countries they leave not benefit from their contributions. (It’s often said that it’s the foreign business and residents who are the first to pay their taxes; none of us want a run-in with the Greek tax office).
• What happens to families from the UK whose children were born in another country, who are at local schools, have all their friends around them and are bi-country as well as bi-lingual? Kids can stay, parents have to go?
• Who pays to get all the expats home with all their belongings (the expats do)? And who helps them relocate? The Government? Not heard anything about that as yet. 600,000 new housing benefit, social housing and welfare support cases coming home all in one go? We’d be stopped at the border and put into a camp in Calais by tabloid reading nutters who would seaze the opportunity to declare the country full up.
• And then there are all the travel restrictions and border patrols, the British passport becomes no longer the passport to have to get you everywhere and anywhere. And so on.

And as for the leaving Europe argument? As far as I can see it’s only some tabloid newspaper readers who are being sold the idea that without EU membership there would be no more migrant workers, no more refugees (because, after all, Britain is already ‘full up’ isn’t it? (Malakies!)), no more Johnny Foreigner coming over and taking the jobs that the disaffected youths and grownups of the country can’t be arsed to do… Again, and so on.

Just thought I’d get those thoughts down before I forgot them. I’ll come back to this in the future no doubt, particularly as I am just off to check what a few reputable online sources have to say on the matter and better educate myself. Meanwhile, if you could do me a favour and vote to stay in Europe I would be grateful. Else I shan’t be here when you come to visit Symi in the future, bringing your expensive visa, your currency changer and your private health insurance premiums with you. Ta.

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