Overseas voters - Ross Clark spectacularly misses the point...

In today's Times, Ross Clark, under the heading, "Expats who don't pay taxes have no right to an MP", demonstrates how not to 'get it', responding to the Liberal Democrat proposal to create constituencies for non-resident voters.

As he puts it, "what right do they have to their own representatives?... Why should the MP for Madrid Este have a say in what goes on in London?". It is a not unreasonable question in itself, but appears to ignore completely the problems caused by having large numbers of, say, Spanish-resident voters, casting their votes in, say, Ipswich.

His argument that, without taxation obligations, there should be no representation, would be fine if he were calling for their right to vote to be removed, but he doesn't. It seems that he is relaxed at the prospect of 2,500 overseas voters in each constituency having a decisive say in an election, whereas under the Liberal Democrat proposal, they would be concentrated in the same way that resident voters are.

And, if Spanish-resident voters were entitled to seven seats, that would be rather less than the number of marginal seats in which the majority was smaller than the number of non-resident voters.

In a increasingly diffuse world, where citizens might live and work overseas for short periods or long, but retain a domicile in the United Kingdom, the right to vote is an important one. It is equally important to link representation to voter in a transparent way, and the notion of overseas constituencies is one way of achieving that.

So, full marks for spotting the issue, but a complete fail for inconsistency of approach...