Have you made your mind up about the referendum?

Yes, and mine was likewise a light- hearted reposte Alea

talking of which and completely off piste (except for late literary literally alliterative alternative allusions) anyone watching 'Upstart crow?

What worries me Mamie, and I presume you are also living abroad, is that if Britain leaves the UE, we will lose our healthcare COMPLETELY. I say this as I have experienced this with my mother, who is a pensioner
Short story. My mother is american, but my father (now deceased) was british. I was born in Britain but have lived in Spain since the age of six, was educated here, and my children were born here. When my father died, as an american she lost all her medical coverage from the UK because my father was no longer living. She has now recovered it because she is my dependent and I am British. I am working, and run my own business, so even if Brexit does come about she and I will be covered by heath insurance, as I am paying into it and she is my dependant. But pensioners who have never worked in Spain will be in the same situation she was in. She had emergency coverage, so a doctor would have seen her had she had an accident, but she would have had to pay ALL her own health bills. I did investigate this and was told quite clearly that she would have no coverage other than emergency. I was told to get her private health insurance, but who will ensure someone in their late seventies - guess what? nobody.
If Britain leaves the EU, a lot of Brits abroad will be teaming back because they cannot afford to live abroad anymore, and will have no government support. I say this, because some years ago (about four) my husband and I, both British, were in serious financial trouble and we contemplated going back to UK to work. That is fine, if you have somewhere to live and enough money to support yourself, as I believe it was you have to be in the UK for 6 months before you can claim any support at all.

If we do exit EU Mamie I won't want to stay here either. Do you have a spare room by any chance?

A spare cottage Lazigirl. Bit of a queue though.
Lisalou we had a scare over our health cover when the rules were changed after we had been in France for 18 months. We are therefore already in the system proper because we have had a small business here.

i read an interesting thing today - this EU ruling about citizens being able to live and work in any other member state does have strings to if the host country wishes to implement them. The citizen has the right to find work but not to sponge off the host country. The host country can insist any person who cannot support themselves and their family returns home. Spain has introduced a minim income level if anyone wishes to remain longer that three months. This is why France and other countries do not pay benefits to people if they have not contributed to the system or if their birth country does not have a reciprocal arrangement - such as the one the UK has at present with UK pensioners and healthcare.
The UK could have been doing this for years but just chose to ignore this section of the treaty. Of course a Brexit would make no differences to the illegal immigrants or asylum seekers who try to get to UK viaCalais and in fact that would be easier for them if France stopped allowing UK Border Control to have posts in Calais.

I am glad for you Mamie, as you are in a position similar to ours. I worry about the thousands of Brits in Spain, and other countries who will be in trouble if the Britain leave the EU

Oops, AnyaI was a bit slow there! Yes, I am enjoying Upstart Crow - what does the title refer to?
A bit worried the humour of the concept could wear thin, but like Blackadder, lots of "in-jokes"!

1000s of expats returning home would certainly put pressure on housing, NHS, schools, etc, etc.

If the Swiss Franc goes up significantly post Brexit- as always happens when there is a financial crisis in Europe- and the £ goes down significantly, we would certainly be in trouble and probably have to go back. We only have our UK pensions and already lost 40% in value since we came here. And if we lose the reciprocal arrangement healthcare and had to subscribe to private system- it would just be the last straw.

We would however make a tidy profit on the sale of our house here and re-change to £s - but not at all what we would wish. We are VERY lucky that we have a flat in the UK, currently a holiday home, we could go back to if need be.

Up-start crow was the name given to Shakespeare, but forgotten by whom.

"I didn't see any poll either, but it doesnt surprise me that a majority on here will be voting out. It has been said many times before that posters on here are of an older demographic, and are more likely to vote out, as they are to be members of Tory party. It's not rocket science.
I am rather by that statement, as it is the leader of the Tory party and many Tories who want us to stay in, and there are many Labour people who do want us to leave but are not getting the publicity that BJ is getting.

1000's of EU migrants returning home would make room for them

Ah yes, remember now:

Greene is most familiar to Shakespeare scholars for his pamphlet Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit, which alludes to a line, 'O tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide', found in Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3 (1623):

"...for there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes fac totum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey".

Greene evidently complains of an actor who believes he can write as well as university-educated playwrights, alludes to the actor with a quotation from either the True Tragedy or Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3, and uses the term "Shake-scene," a unique term never used before or after Greene's screed, to refer to the actor. The Oxford English Dictionary notes that it is "Of uncertain or vague meaning: used by Greene in his attack on Shakespeare."

My postal voting papers arrived today so I am going to put X on the spot and post it tomorrow- then I need not think about it until the results.

Lukewarm?
You haven't seen the news, then, showing him in various places in the country, always with a microphone in his hand doing what he does best, speaking to the people who have a vote?
Not really, no. (I must watch the 'wrong' news.)
Well, far from the firebrand we expected when he became Leader of the Labour Party, as far as I can tell he seems quite luke-warm about many things.
Probably because he has had to compromise and tone down his views to appease the wide spectrum of the parliamentary Labour Party.

I made up my mind and then changed it. Floating voter. I do not know

Firecracker- most returnees would be retired, older, and as such quite a 'burden' for the NHS- and they would not be taking up the jobs that the immigrants do that need doing either. This is not an ageist comment- but fact that older people do need more support and treatment.

but fact that older people do need more support and treatment
that is why I think that pensioners who can afford it should pay a lower rate of NI towards the NHS.
Red Herring I know, back to the EU vote.

Lower? Why?

We don't pay any NI after the age of 60. (So that we can spend it instead on and and maybe ?? or ???)

Er, sorry Alea but those of us who don't get our pensions until aged 66 will and do continue to pay NI.

Jalima If you had read my subsequent post in reply to Day6 I did not say that all Torys are voting out and Labour in.

Oops, sorry! Being on the "over the hill downward slope " from pension age I hadn't realised!

I think floating voters might to well to talk to their grown-up grandchildren if they have them, or other student age family members. It is their future in the long run.
For older people, if there is an Exit, we can expect with some confidence:
* More austerity in the immediate future (even more) due to the predicted short term dip in the economy. This could affect the jobs and/or benefits of older workers or their family members. Economic uncertainty may continue for some years but no knowing how it would level off.
* Currency fluctuations while this uncertainty continues.
* Immigration will continue, because the economy, particularly in the SE, will continue to need workers. However they will be of more mixed nationality - fewer EU and more from Africa, Sub Continent and Far East.
* Likewise a more ethnically diverse bunch of people will be caring for us when we need care.
Other than that the effects of an Exit are guesswork and will to some extent depend on who is governing the UK.

Lower? Why?
Because we have paid for our pensions already through NI so should not contribute to that; a lower rate to go specifically to the NHS.

We don't pay any NI at all after State Pension age.

Jalima If you had read my subsequent post in reply to Day6 I did not say that all Torys are voting out and Labour in.
To be perfectly truthful I wasn't sure who had said it in the first place
Did Day6 misquote the original statement? If so, apologies.