Re: BREXIT, IN or OUT of the EU? BritsinCrete Poll
Home › Living In Crete › Pensions and #Retirement Living › Re: BREXIT, IN or OUT of the EU? BritsinCrete Poll
- This topic has 14 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 3rd May 2016 at 5:42 pm by
Kefalas.

-
AuthorPosts
-
BREXIT!
I received the following answer from my MP about continuity of UK State Pension upgrades and reciprocal health care provisions.
I hope you expats have got your voting papers sorted and ready for keeping us Brits in the EU to help protect and ensure our financial security.
If you need to register for UK voting go to the British Embassy, Athens website.
Have any of you obtained dual UK/Greek nationality, if so what benefits does it give you?
Re: BREXIT
This is what I should have posted this morning, sorry about that!
Mark & QuoteQuotePost Tools
I received the following answer from my MP about continuity of UK State Pension upgrades and reciprocal health care provisions.
”
Your question about BREXIT, it is possible that British state pensions could be frozen for ex-pats as they are already in many other non-EU countries, such as Australia Canada, South Africa, as the law allows freezing of the pension, unless reciprocal arrangements are in place. At present NHS treatment is free for those with a European Health Insurance Card and UK state pensioners living in the European Economic Area. However, it is possible that if Britain exits the EU, expats would have to buy private health insurance or pay for treatment.
BREXIT would be unknown territory, if Britain was to leave negotiations with the EU and/or individual States on a full range of issues that affect expats would have to take place. Whether or not the outcome of any agreements was to the benefit or detriment to UK citizens living abroad would have to be seen.”
I hope you expats have got your voting papers sorted and ready for keeping us Brits in the EU to help protect and ensure our financial security.
If you need to register for UK voting go to the British Embassy, Athens website.
Have any of you obtained dual UK/Greek nationality, if so what benefits does it give you?
Re: BREXIT
This is what I should have posted this morning, sorry about that!
Mark & QuoteQuotePost Tools
I received the following answer from my MP about continuity of UK State Pension upgrades and reciprocal health care provisions.
”
Your question about BREXIT, it is possible that British state pensions could be frozen for ex-pats as they are already in many other non-EU countries, such as Australia Canada, South Africa, as the law allows freezing of the pension, unless reciprocal arrangements are in place. At present NHS treatment is free for those with a European Health Insurance Card and UK state pensioners living in the European Economic Area. However, it is possible that if Britain exits the EU, expats would have to buy private health insurance or pay for treatment.
BREXIT would be unknown territory, if Britain was to leave negotiations with the EU and/or individual States on a full range of issues that affect expats would have to take place. Whether or not the outcome of any agreements was to the benefit or detriment to UK citizens living abroad would have to be seen.”
I hope you expats have got your voting papers sorted and ready for keeping us Brits in the EU to help protect and ensure our financial security.
If you need to register for UK voting go to the British Embassy, Athens website.
Have any of you obtained dual UK/Greek nationality, if so what benefits does it give you?
admin
KeymasterMember since: 1st January 2005- Topics: 607
- Replies: 751
- Total: 1358
- Practcally Cretan
- ★★★★★★
VOTE NOW IN THIS BRITSINCRETE POLL no matter where you live in the world……
Member Ian has taken a keen interest on this matter, and clearly believes that British expats living in Greece should vote for the UK to STAY in the European Union.
For those who are usually disinterested in commenting on political issues, well in my opinion this is one that affects all our futures, and we should all support staying in the EU….
There is amazing rhetoric about ‘we" British must sustain our independence at all costs and not be part of a Brussels clique, being unelected invisible bureaucrats that control our lives. Well if you think this way, you have every right to be told you are wrong.
Bury your heads in the sand if that is the case. I for one do not want to see Britain a much reduced entity. Taking just one area alone — Scientific Research. We lead in many endeavours. We do so because of our relationship through EU membership with leading other research centres throughout Europe. That automatic link will be severed as the all-important EU-wide shared funding for research will be withdrawn.
If Brits vote out, I can foresee, the attitude to a declared independent Scotland will be welcomed back in the EU fold pronto in retaliation for an England, Wales, Northern Ireland departure. Rump UK will be decidedly weaker than it could ever imagined.
While I think Nicola Sturgeon is the most dangerous woman in the UK today with many of her policies, she is correct on the question of staying in Europe. She knows where her bread is buttered best once the previous funding support from England and Wales disappears.
Anyone can vote in our poll here…. members and non members.
This poll ends right before the IN/OUT Referendum on June 23, 2016
IF YOU ARE A VISITOR VOTE NOW
admin
KeymasterMember since: 1st January 2005- Topics: 607
- Replies: 751
- Total: 1358
- Practcally Cretan
- ★★★★★★
Looks like the "STAY" side have the edge in our mini poll here.
Have you been swayed in either direction by recent arguments?
Add your vote … all can vote, only members can comment. Join to comment, it is free and easy.
admin
KeymasterMember since: 1st January 2005- Topics: 607
- Replies: 751
- Total: 1358
- Practcally Cretan
- ★★★★★★
Update…. on our Brits in Crete mini poll on #Brexit
Growing margin to STAY is at virtually 2:1 against a #Brexit. See Poll at page top.
Latest national poll in UK shows the Brexit supporters however are gaining ground to within 5 percentage points of those wishing to STAY.
As EXPATS our voice must be heard as we are getting further and further marginalised by this current government just because we choose to stay outside of UK but within the EU. You would think that this would concur with the UK government’s ‘STAY" position in the referendum.
Peebee
ParticipantMember since: 15th September 2009- Topics: 51
- Replies: 720
- Total: 771
- Practcally Cretan
- ★★★★★★
I think the poll is a bit ambiguous.
The wording `Should the UK leave’, does that mean do you want them to leave, or is it better for the UK residents if they leave?
Personally, I think it is better for most of us ex-pats if the UK stays in, however, if I was still living in the UK, I would definitely vote `out’.admin
KeymasterMember since: 1st January 2005- Topics: 607
- Replies: 751
- Total: 1358
- Practcally Cretan
- ★★★★★★
Peebee it is really good to see you posting your point of view.
It is common for those who know me to say how non mainstream I can be, so with most of the polls asking the question in the form should the UK STAY, I, without much thought opted for Should the UK leave.
Now, I am not quite sure where I see the ambiguity in that question.
I think it is just that everyone is so used to the other approach that it actually makes the reader of the question make them look harder before choosing to answer our "yes" or "no" mini poll.
The poll is getting more responses than I recall over all other previous polls in this forum and in a short space of time. Clearly this is an issue that matters. And more visitors and members are willing to participate than ever before.
Again thanks for your support and all those who have voted.
Appreciated.
Gerald
Peebee
ParticipantMember since: 15th September 2009- Topics: 51
- Replies: 720
- Total: 771
- Practcally Cretan
- ★★★★★★
60656C686F010 wrote: Now, I am not quite sure where I see the ambiguity in that question
It lies in whether the people voting on this forum are ex-pats speaking from a personal interest point of view, or from the perspective of people living in the UK.
As I stated, living here I would vote stay, living in the UK I would say OUT OUT OUT.admin
KeymasterMember since: 1st January 2005- Topics: 607
- Replies: 751
- Total: 1358
- Practcally Cretan
- ★★★★★★
Peebee, to me, your position is a double edged sword.
My thinking is clear cut. I hold the same view whether as a person living in the UK or as an expat outside.
The core cause of anti-EU sentiment in Britain is the influx of newly joined member states nationals to work. It is my viewpoint that the press jumped on board this bandwagon and has taken a strategic position of stating time and time again that the EU membership is to be blamed for the influx of EU nationals from lower standard of living countries to improve their lot in Britain at the expense of Brits being employed. This is proven wrong factually time and time again.
Yes, there are those "other" EU nationals claiming for benefits for their children back in their home countries while the parents work in UK. That is wrong…. Can you see the Greeks doing that easily? Anyway, that has been corrected, or is in the process of being corrected for the UK.
That issue like many are in the hands of the UK government. UK’s incredibly liberal attitudes in "EU freedom of movement of people" do not match those of Greece. Has anyone ever tried to claim benefits there. For the most part it is a nightmare. You see it is Greece for the Greeks first, then others. Under EU regulations this surely is not allowed. But in practice it is taken for granted every day that it is Greeks first and then everyone else after in the land of democratic principles. Is it fair? The Greeks would say so. If as an EU national resident in Greece, you persevere, you will get what you justly deserve under the law. Benefits will then be paid at Greek levels not those of the UK.
In the UK that is way I always felt it should be too. But consecutive Westminster governments continue to bend over backwards to foreigners and now if you are Anglo Saxon white can get the short end of the wedge. The original inhabitants, the whites are a minority in our own country, or soon will be.
So what I am saying in short is that we have to take care of our own first. We have the ability to do so. But that does not mean having to leave the EU. Just get our own priorities right. Charity starts at home. We already have it in our own hands to take control. So why are consecutive governments so weak not to stand their ground and put Brits first just like the Greeks put Greeks first in their own land. The same EU laws apply in Greece as it does in the UK. How have they (the Greeks) got it right for their needs when we in UK got it so wrong?
This is what I think and a diversion for a moment. We need a #DonaldTrump-like character in UK to shake up the political establishment so pathetically entrenched in its own sacrosanct position of power; of lining the pockets of its adherents not benefitting, and at the expense of, the population at large. Then at the other extreme a media pushing a liberal agenda where anything goes even anarchy if it served its purpose to instate raw socialism.
To sum up, we have control of our destiny, then let us use it. Forget political correctness. So what if the EU fines UK every day for taking back its government’s responsibility to its own people? Other EU countries are doing it all the time and getting up the noses of the EU Commission but they are not threatening to pull out….. It is called justice and a balancing of power.
#DavidCameron was nothing less than an idiot for calling for a referendum in the first place. If he had more balls and confidence in his own ability this would never have happened. But it did. Now we as expats face the consequences if a population fed up with politicians in the UK throws us to the wolves… Because, do you think the Greece will be extra nice to us if we as Brit passport holders living amongst them. Well, I don’t. They even like Putin. And that says it all. They are pragmatic just like we as Brits should be.
Stay in is better than being out. Like every EU member state we took on board, membership as a package. That includes warts and all. That is far better than as an outsider. The Norwegians tell us don’t do it, even though it works – I do not know how well – for them. Even Obama (grrrrrr) stuck his unwanted oar in this past week. But he made a clear statement. It is not in America’s interest for Britain to be Out of the EU.
If you have not voted yet, please do so in our poll atop this posting. Our forum has many outside observers. Comments made hear do carry interest further afield. It is just a pity that so many believe in FB rather than a discourse in a forum, like this. None the less this poll has generated more votes than any other by far since we started in early 2000s.
Peebee
ParticipantMember since: 15th September 2009- Topics: 51
- Replies: 720
- Total: 771
- Practcally Cretan
- ★★★★★★
Well that’s a big turn around in the voting, seems people are getting more active now, as I don’t think is possible to change your vote on the forum poll.
Gerald, I won’t comment on every point in your post, just the one.
`Like every EU member state we took on board, membership as a package‘ that is not true, the population voted for a `common market’, not a dictatorship run by unelected officials.admin
KeymasterMember since: 1st January 2005- Topics: 607
- Replies: 751
- Total: 1358
- Practcally Cretan
- ★★★★★★
Peebee you are right and maybe the "OUT" supporters are casting their votes. I can see the forum logs and the senders’ addresses are worldwide. Maybe it is coincidence or maybe an organised effort by a group or by an individual since I posted the long piece.
It is only a simple poll on sentiment.
All the better if it is gaining some attention.
I will keep an eye on it.Gerald
IMF
CBI
Lloyd’s
General Sir Mike Jackson
President Obama
Bank of England
OECD state it will cost most people a months wages every year if we leave.
All the above, inter alia, have stated it would be disaster for Britain to leave. The exit side tell us that Nigel Farage knows more than the above world bodies.Peebee
ParticipantMember since: 15th September 2009- Topics: 51
- Replies: 720
- Total: 771
- Practcally Cretan
- ★★★★★★
It all depends on whether you believe them, or where these figures come from.
Do you really think that Obama, being one of the worst US Presidents in living memory, really understands or knows anything about the UK / EU economy. Obviously he has been briefed by someone in the stay campaign.
As for the IMF, I wouldn’t believe anything that corrupt organisation says.
Just on those two points alone, leads me to believe that it is untrue.
Putting it another way, if the UK wasn’t in the EU, and the referendum was for joining, would you really vote yes to being part of the `club’ as it is run at the moment ?EDIT:- Just read that Ed Milliband has stated that leaving the EU would endanger planet Earth. Well that’s it then, must vote stay otherwise we are all doomed.
Kefalas
ParticipantMember since: 8th March 2014- Topics: 46
- Replies: 306
- Total: 352
- Practcally Cretan
- ★★★★★★
I’m in the "Remain" camp and not for any political or financial reason. The fact is that most of Europe wants Britain IN. The American government wants Britain IN. The only countries that want Britain OUT are probably Russia and maybe China.
The reason that I’m for staying IN is simply that Britain’s leaving would set a precedent that would clear the way for a complete break-up of Europe. If Britain were seen to benefit by leaving then countries such as Spain, Italy, Portugal might also leave.
There are powerful forces who would ensure that Britain does not benefit by leaving. You’ve seen what happened to Greece, which was on the brink of leaving (the people effectively voted for it). Well Britain will be made to suffer if it leaves.
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.