In the dark

Without wishing to get involved in in the pros and cons of Britain's membership of the European Union, there is one question which needs to be answered: what will be the status of hundreds of thousands of expats if Britain leaves the European Union? Now, thousands of expats have already been cold-shouldered on the vote in the European referendum but they can't be let down once again by the British government and should at least be given a vague idea of what will happen to British citizens resident in continental Europe if Britain leaves. There will be some in Britain who believe that as we live in the sun and drink gin & tonics by the poolside all day while avoiding paying British tax, we should not have a say and if we don't like it we should move back to the UK. Unfortunately, it is this single-minded attitude which is fuelling the rather anti-expat rhetoric which exists in some quarters and is perhaps keeping the 15-year-old voting rule in place.  The Cameron government has said that it wants to abolish the 15- year rule and allow expats the vote for life but unfortunately the legislation is on hold and barring a small miracle (which we are fighting for) thousands of expats will be unable to have their say on Europe. But the British government can't and shouldn't be allowed to forget about expats. After all, we are all British citizens and the only difference between us and those in Britain is our place of residency.