As the hostile environment continues to ruin lives, Lib Dem Immigrants posed questions to the leadership candidates.
Here are their answers.
Jo:I believe that it makes no sense to withhold voting rights from people who live, work, and have settled in the United Kingdom. We saw in the Euro elections this May the impact of having a double standard of voting eligibility – councils unable to administer the system and people unaware that they weren’t going to be able to vote. To add insult to injury, the idea that people born outside the Commonwealth don’t have a vote simply because they weren’t once taken over by Britain as part of the Empire, is outdated and completely unfair. Put simply – I believe that if you’re living in this country long term, you should be able to vote.
Ed:
• the voting eligibility of resident EU citizens (I presume you mean people who have permanent residency rights) should be full, i.e., all elections.
• to widen the franchise to give voting rights to non-EU, non-Commonwealth citizens, would be a major departure. Nonetheless, I would be very keen to do it for local elections, but would want to consult widely before giving voting rights for national elections.
Q2: The party is committed to reducing visa fees to the cost of administration. What other steps could we take to stop visa regulations tormenting immigrants? For example, how could we make work visas less of a barrier to career progression?
•
Jo: First of all, I think we need to distinguish between migrants who are living and working in the UK (and so who have very little choice about using the healthcare we provide here), and the very small numbers of people that the NHS estimates use their services while on holiday or otherwise in the UK without residency or a visa in place. People who are living in and contributing to the UK should not be penalised by being forced to pay for healthcare – we all know how difficult it is, for instance, keeping a job if you have a chronic condition where you need regular doctors’ appointments. We shouldn’t expect people to leave the country to receive this basic healthcare if they’re living and working in the UK on an extended basis. I do believe that people who are not in the UK long-term should not be able to expect or receive free secondary care. Of course we must, ethically, treat anybody who turns up in A&E or for maternity care etc. without any regard to ‘eligibility’ for care – but beyond this, the NHS is stretched both financially and in terms of personnel and given that the vast majority of people using this care will have health insurance in place, it’s only reasonable for them to pay in the same way British citizens would if they were on holiday abroad. It’s worth noting as well that we already have a healthcare sharing arrangement within the EEA which is easy to access and enables British citizens to access free and discounted healthcare across 31 countries. These kinds of reciprocal arrangements enable easy access to essential services for both British and EU citizens and should be built on. The bigger issue here, I think, is what the focus on ‘eligibility’ means for British citizens – disproportionately BAME or foreign-born citizens – who as a result of this policy are asked to provide identity documents before care is provided. This can be counter-productive, and as we know from the Windrush scandal, Home Office opinions on citizenship and eligibility for services don’t always match reality. This is the issue we need to address to ensure that healthcare is available to all who need it, regardless of nationality.
Ed: by arguing from Liberal principles, that all human beings are of equal value, deserving of equal respect. I do think arguing for the benefits of immigration for the UK is still important, given we have a lot of people to convince, but I absolutely take the point we need to argue about individuals as people with families, with rights etc.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
6 Comments
The conveying of a tendency in answers, depends on who, and how, the questions are asked.
If quizzed in a rather pressured way, Ed seems better on detail Jo, on direction.
Happily in this topic Jo does both a little better.
Her answers on things such as NHS charges are honest, and finessed and just.
It is very difficult to get answers to difficult questions from these two.
Their Web Sites do not offer a Q with A facility.
Many contributors to LDV have asked for there sipport for the Alston Report.
They have been silent on this. I tried submitting a question along these lines to a hustings, did not get me anywhere.
Ed and Jo I hope a member of your team is monitoring LDV
ANSWER PLEASE.
They also need to make it clear that some of the coalition decisions were wrong, and that our current policies show a move away from the austerity of those years.
CLARITY PLEASE
http://www.commonwealthofnations.org/country/
Rwanda is now a member of the Commonwealth, but was not part of the British empire
Afraid we have been really busy and not got our Q and A sent to LDV for publication, but here they are :
http://libdemfocus.co.uk/ld4sos/archives/1605
@ Richard Underhill ‘Rwanda is now a member of the Commonwealth, but was not part of the British empire’
Mozambique too, I believe.
There are also countries which have been out of the Commonwealth, some of whom have later returned. It’s a bit of a mess, which makes Jo’s call for a Resident Franchise much more sensible.
Mozambique is also a Commonwealth country that was never part of the Empire.