Don’t disagree, ironic the US started largely as a protest about taxation without representation and now the US has become one of only two countries to tax their overseas citizens.

Not to mention the situations with Puerto Rico, Washington D.C and other territories (like Guam and the US Virgin Islands) who are also taxed but do not have representation.

And your name is published on a public list of people that have given up their citizenship.

So… let’s take in even more money and disenfranchise people further despite clear ties to the UK?

A visa application is around £1k (on average) for a 2.5 year visa, plus £1k/year IHS surcharge (extra NHS supplement, no exclusions for those in work).

Plus any fees for getting to a processing place or premium service (visa application timelines can be 3+ months, and sometimes getting appointments at these places requires extra payment because they never have “standard” appointments available).

So for an extra 5 years before ILR eligibility it’s an additional £7k+, assuming the applicant doesn’t need any legal advice or urgent processing time.

Then £3k for ILR (which can take 6 months unless you shell out an extra £k for priority processing), but you still can’t vote even with permanent residency, and having to deal with immigration every time you enter the country (even when I had ILR I would occasionally get grilled and I am privileged enough to be white and from an English speaking country).

Absolute joke. They’ll certainly reduce immigration by showing just how isolationist we seem to want to be and we will all suffer for it.

Separately, I think it would be better to allow people on asylum/refugee visas to work, or even volunteer (yes there are restrictions on volunteering…) so they are integrating into society more, it must be awful to live in limbo without the ability to do more for themselves or their family.

It’s what plants crave

As much as that would be hilarious… no when water is set out ahead of time they’ll put a little paper cover on the tops of the glasses to get dust or whatever from getting in there. Now as to why he clearly hadn’t drunk from that glass… 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️