We Pay Taxes But Are We Heard

I thought I would share one of my gripes with you. Before I do so though, I should mention that I am slightly biased.

I live in Spain. I pay taxes in Spain. My child is educated in Spain. I use its facilities, its social infrastructure and try to contribute as much as I can to society itself. But I can not vote.

Sure, I can vote for the council, or the European Parliament, but I have no say where any of my tax money gets spent. I can not influence democratically how my company can grow. I can not try and influence a better society for my Spanish born child. Is that fair?

If I was an ex convict, unemployed, dealing crack and living off stolen goods, I could vote and shape society. But in Europe I pay nearly half my salary to the government, I pay nearly half of my company profit to the government, and the crack dealing ex-convict gets to spend it all!

So my proposition is that instead of me voting in the UK general elections, for a government that does nothing for me, except maybe rescue me if North Korea invades Madrid, why do we not vote in our country of residence. After all, we are Europeans, with the same rights and legal benefits as all European Nationals. Are we not meant to be treated as any other national resident (apart from in PC City of course – see http://expatsmadrid.blogspot.com/2010/12/pc-city-or-pc-shitty.html )? Why can I not vote in the society, in the country that I live and invest in?

I wanted to share this thought with you. Is there a forum out there where this is being discussed?