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Not many back in what they see as their home country, realise how quickly the community has grown in the UK. Just a few years back those in Sri Lanka were counting the numbers in their four and five hundred thousand.

Now our High Commission here tells me that it has mounted to seven hundred thousand perhaps looked as a round figure. Some claim these numbers swelled in the last couple of years when the Sri Lankan government was engaged in its ‘Grusha Act’ and drove professionals and others unable to bear the brunt of the new economic and social policies squeezing them out of their livelihoods and a more democratic environment in which the freedom of speech and dissent and other human rights were respected.

This, it is claimed, is mainly responsible for the Sri Lankan exodus and growing community of different ethnicities.

But each time one speaks to professionals of Sri Lankan origin, whether of recent origin or an earlier vintage, this issue inevitably arises, more so from recent arrivals who provide several reasons for their exit from what was their home until recently.

They still look back nostalgically to the home and friends they miss and hope that the upcoming elections will mark a sea change in the country’s politics so that they may consider returning home.

To them, the September election, now confirmed but still doubted by sceptics accustomed to the vagaries of Sri Lankan politics, means far more than to the more settled and established of their country ‘cousins’.

The elections have more meaning for them as it is recent politics, driven by IMF policies seen by many as the economic gospel and the ambitions of domestic politicians old and new craving for power and privilege, that has triggered the exodus even by those well-established at home but unable to bear the corruption, the inequalities, and the breakdown of justice and the rule of law caused largely by political arrogance and the thirst for power.

To the older generations who are firmly established in their British environments and have absorbed its way of life, politics here is much more important and relevant than what some call “that madness called politics at home seeped in corruption where nothing gets done without giving ‘something’, as we used to call it, from ministers down.”

“So how can a country succeed when this is what propels politics, the IMF notwithstanding?” one veteran doctor said.

But now that the British elections, which are of greater concern to them, are over and the Conservative Party has been thrown out on its ears, they can now turn to their former home country to see “which crooks will be in power,” a thought that is gaining resonance.

With the Conservatives having done what the Ranil Wickremesinghe government is doing with taxes and economic policies that have made life difficult for the large majority, the people cried for system change.

That is what they got when the Tories faced one of their worst defeats, being swept out after 14 years in power.

In France, many of the average Sri Lankan feared that the sudden election that President Emmanual Macron called would bring Marine Le Pen’s hard-right National Rally to office, as early polls indicated. But they were saved from it when the new left-wing alliance beat the NR to the post.

The Sri Lankans in Germany would have to wait till next year when the country holds its Bundestag elections after the 2021 polls when the Social Democrats (SPD) rose to power.

One reason why attention in Sri Lankan elections, and more news from the country too, is attracting avid interest is because of the spread of Sri Lankan-run social media platforms in Europe itself, bringing up-to-date news and commentaries that keep the continent-based Sri Lankan very much in the loop.

But if the interest in Sri Lankan elections is more pronounced in the UK, it stems from the long historical relationship between the UK and its former colony. Though the umbilical cord was gradually severed, particularly after 1972 when Sri Lanka became a republic, Colombo’s parliamentary democratic tradition dates back to British times when we inherited House of Commons parliamentary practices just as we inherited cricket, both now sadly fading.

One, of course, still hears occasional mention by a leader of the House, a government chief whip, or front-benchers from either side of the chamber, of Commons standing orders and regulations or of Erskine May, that guru on parliamentary practice.

Whether this is intended to impress colleagues and the public with one’s knowledge or just repetition of hearsay, it is better to stay out of speculating to avoid encroaching on the breach of privilege of Members.

It is also because politicians from home have visited this country quite regularly in recent months and even addressed meetings, which have allowed the diaspora to question them as to their policies and programmes.

So it is more the Sri Lanka community in Europe that has its eyes more sharply focused on happenings in their former country, especially on the various moves and manoeuvres at postponing elections, extending the term of this temporary president, and the confrontations with the judiciary between the executive and the legislature that have made front page news in many parts of the world, particularly in countries where the judiciary and justice system are held in great respect.

With so many of our expats in the legal profession and some adorning our legal system by having the QC or KC as suffixes after their names, the attempt to browbeat the judiciary, which cannot reply to those who use parliamentary privilege, is seen by our people as an affront to the justice, as they will tell you when engaged in conversations.

Just before I sat down at night to write this, I was at a dana for the monks of the London Buddhist Vihara, where the conversation before a few of us turned to scathing comments on the government’s recent comments to belittle the judiciary.

One of them also drew attention to the attempt by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to prorogue parliament for a longer period than usual and had the Queen, who passed away after her long reign last year, announce the proroguing of parliament, saying that the judiciary had no powers over parliament.

Limited space does not let me tell the full story, but hopefully, I could do it next week.

The lesson from the diaspora here is that Sri Lanka should conduct itself like a civilised nation respecting international norms, not behaving like the mafia that ministers and others keep referring to as though they had encountered the mafioso.

(Neville de Silva is a veteran Sri Lankan journalist who was Assistant Editor of the Hong Kong Standard and worked for Gemini News Service in London. Later, he was Deputy Chief-of-Mission in Bangkok and Deputy High Commissioner in London.)