OVERSEAS VOTES FOR ALL!

by RAY FLEMING
IMAGINE that a general election in Britain was heading for a dead heat and that the final decisive votes to be counted came from Majorca or, more realistically, from Spain as a whole! It sounds rather fanciful but this is pretty much what happened in the Italian election earlier this week. Some 3.5 million Italian citizens living abroad had the vote for the first time and could choose twelve deputies in the lower house and six senators. Reports from London and the United States say there was tremendous interest among Italian communities. Their votes were the last to be counted and they gave four of their six senate seats to Romano Prodi's coalition and only one to Berlusconi, thus giving Prodi a narrow victory. From time to time visiting MPs from Westminster mention the idea of overseas constituencies when British residents here complain about being disenfranchised. The number of British citizens living abroad is probably not as great as the Italians but nonetheless it would be nice to feel that we still had a little influence in the old country and it would give the candidates for these seats a chance to get a spot of sunshine while campaigning. Now the precedent has been established by Italy, let's push for it to be followed in Britain.