Episode 13 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast
You can download this episode directly here.
Common Weal’s Head of Policy and Research Dr Craig Dalzell is joined by Ellen Höfer, Creative Director of EU Citizens for an Independent Scotland.
Scotland is currently having a discussion about electoral franchise and the rights of people resident in Scotland. From Common Weal’s policy paper on Scottish immigration post-Brexit, Ellen and Craig discuss the possibility of a devolved Scottish immigration system and how that could involve not just control over the criteria for living in Scotland but also the extension of rights to refugees and asylum seekers such as the right to work and the right to vote.
The right to vote played a substantial role in the recent Referendums Bill as it re-extended the right to vote to EU citizens who would otherwise have lost the right to vote in a future independence referendum due to Brexit. This right has since been superseded by the new Electoral Franchise Bill which will extend the right to vote in all referendums as well as Scottish elections and local elections to almost ALL permanent residents of Scotland (although the implications for prisoner voting proves to be an interesting case of the impact of overlapping legislation).
Common Weal’s work is only possible thanks to our generous supporters who regularly donate an average of £10 per month. If you would like to help us build our vision of an All of Us First Scotland, you can do so here: http://commonweal.scot/about/donate
The Policy Podcast would like to discuss all of Common Weal’s policy papers in detail over the next several months so if there are any papers that you would like to see covered sooner rather than later, send your suggestions in to craig@common.scot
Theme
“Hiding Your Reality” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/