Classic, classic British efficiency.
So I read today that Blair has called a general election for May 5th. I found a couple of contact numbers in England and phoned the aboutmyvote 1-800 number. The woman there was very helpful and told me that we could vote by proxy as we live in America, and gave me the number for the council offices for our last address in the UK. I Called them, and it became obvious to me again within a couple of minutes why we left the UK. The guy said yes, we could vote by proxy, and yes, the election was on May 5th. He even confirmed our old address. Then he said that unless we'd registered to vote by March 18th, we actually weren't able to vote at all. The conversation went something like this:
Me : "Oh. But we only found out today that the election is May 5th - how was I supposed to know about the March 18th date?"
Him : "We notified everyone by mail in February that overseas voters had to be registered by March 18th."
Me : "Wait. You notified everyone in Bracknell by post that if they lived overseas they had to be registered to vote?"
Him : "Yes."
Me : "How is that supposed to work? I don't live in Bracknell any more - I live in America."
Him : "It was in the local paper and on the local radio too."
Me : "But I live in America. It's not been in the news or on the BBC website as far as I can tell, and despite having our address here, you never wrote to us to inform us of the overseas voter thing."
Him : "Well we can't be expected to write to people who don't live in the country."
Me : "Ok. So you notified people in Bracknell that if they lived overseas, they needed to register to vote. But you can't be expected to write to the people that actually live overseas to tell them the same thing, is that right?"
Him : "That's correct."
*Click*.
Typical. Bloody typical.
Me : "Oh. But we only found out today that the election is May 5th - how was I supposed to know about the March 18th date?"
Him : "We notified everyone by mail in February that overseas voters had to be registered by March 18th."
Me : "Wait. You notified everyone in Bracknell by post that if they lived overseas they had to be registered to vote?"
Him : "Yes."
Me : "How is that supposed to work? I don't live in Bracknell any more - I live in America."
Him : "It was in the local paper and on the local radio too."
Me : "But I live in America. It's not been in the news or on the BBC website as far as I can tell, and despite having our address here, you never wrote to us to inform us of the overseas voter thing."
Him : "Well we can't be expected to write to people who don't live in the country."
Me : "Ok. So you notified people in Bracknell that if they lived overseas, they needed to register to vote. But you can't be expected to write to the people that actually live overseas to tell them the same thing, is that right?"
Him : "That's correct."
*Click*.
Typical. Bloody typical.
Comments
Given that you've chosen to leave the UK and don't pay any UK taxes etc then I'm afraid I think if you want to have your say in UK politics you have to take personal responsibility for ensuring those rights are maintained.
That said, I stand corrected and apologise for my assumption that you'd severed all financial links.
I still think you're a bit harsh to quote this as a "British" problem, in my experience governmental agencies of whatever type in whatever country are usually just as "helpful".