To think this was selfish?

Agreed, that’s why I only mentioned Commonwealth citizens and not the Irish.

From my experience they either didn’t care enough to vote so didn’t bother, or voted leave because they didn’t like that EU citizens had freedom of movement in the UK.

They aren't ex pats, they are quite simply immigrants that is what makes it all so laughable.

Most of us are yes but specifically my own family that moved to the uk when they were kids and out of about 9 of them I know 7 voted leave. Their husbands/wives/adult kids voted the same was as them. Baffled me then, baffles me now.

My BIL’s mother used to live most of the year in Spain. She and her entire circle of moronic expat cronies voted leave, and have subsequently been surprised and upset by how much it’s curtailed their freedom of movement and detrimentally affected their lives, from cost of living to medical insurance.

It’s almost like they didn’t think it through …

Oh I have similar feelings. My Mum voted for Brexit and promptly moved to France before the rules kicked in…

I don’t know a single Irish citizen who voted for Leave. Irish people are far more pro-EU in general.

My FIL said something about voting for Brexit because of farmers. My friend voted for Brexit because of a single human rights case and she said we had to get the UK out - not clear what good Brexit did for either. But I think some people had some highly specific reasons and didn’t think or didn’t care about it the impact on their children and grandchildren.

It’s a case of “I didn’t think the face eating leopard would eat MY face!” There’s a lot of it about.

I voted remain, but I don't think your mum was obliged to consider anyone else in her voting choices. Your choice of partner and decision to have a baby was nothing to do with her.

In this particular one I’m not sure they should have had. They excluded British citizens living abroad from the vote, so why not commonwealth citizens? I think many of them voted leave out of spite because it was much more difficult for them and their families to come to the UK than for EU citizens, but didn’t think about the bigger picture.

It was all a shambles anyway.

Irish and Commonwealth citizens have full voting rights in UK general and local elections and referenda.

there's plenty of evidence to say that the Referendum would have gone the other way if 1) voters took it more seriously and 2) voters understood what it would mean for them

This is the infuriating part as the vote was so close. It wouldn't have taken many of the 52% to have voted Remain for us to have stayed in the EU.

Eg those who retired to Spain declaring on BBC Breakfast TV that they were voting leave 'because there's too much immigration these days' only to find that it then became more difficult or impossible for them to continue living in Spain because, newsflash, ending freedom of movement works both ways.

Also all the farmers and fishermen who voted leave who were then surprised it meant they would no longer receive EU subsidies. No shit Sherlock.

there's plenty of evidence to say that the Referendum would have gone the other way if 1) voters took it more seriously and 2) voters understood what it would mean for them

This is the infuriating part as the vote was so close. It wouldn't have taken many of the 52% to have voted Remain for us to have stayed in the EU.

Eg those who retired to Spain declaring on BBC Breakfast TV that they were voting leave 'because there's too much immigration these days' only to find that it then became more difficult or impossible for them to continue living in Spain because, newsflash, ending freedom of movement works both ways.

Also all the farmers and fishermen who voted leave who were then surprised it meant they would no longer receive EU subsidies. No shit Sherlock.

My Mum voted leave based on immigration and not wanting the ‘EU telling us what to do’.
A few months later she moved to the EU country where I live.
A proper face palm.

Don’t deceive yourself. I’m fairly well educated and work with similarly educated people. None of them would admit to voting leave at the time, but statistically it would be nearly impossible that not a single person in my professional circle did. It made me question people’s true beliefs and feelings for a long time after that vote.

I don't think that's what either of us was saying.

In the immediate aftermath of the referendum, there were so many people saying they'd voted leave when they didn't mean it and since then there have been many Brits who voted leave, both expats and those who still live here, who have been shocked & upset at what brexit has meant for them. These are people shocked at fairly obvious consequences, which were publicly discussed during the campaigns.

There are plenty of people who voted leave who stand by there vote and knew what it meant, but there's plenty of evidence to say that the Referendum would have gone the other way if 1) voters took it more seriously and 2) voters understood what it would mean for them

So every Brexit voter did not think it through.
Every remain voter did.
Give over.
There was a referendum and the votes decided it.

I am of the opinion that if the vote to remain had been successful then people would now be moaning that the people who voted to remain had not thought it through and were massively irresponsible for us still being in the EU with all its silly rules and regulations.

Has it had a big impact on your life? You didn't think about it until your friend brought it up. It may not have occurred to your mother at the time any more than it occurred to you.

That’s the great thing about British Democracy - we can vote for who we want.

I really dislike people who hold politics against others (unless it’s the Nazi party or similar very right wing or Sharia based or something) - if you want to manipulate others in the way they vote I’d probably choose a less Democratic country. There are plenty around….

I don’t think very many of the people who voted to leave really understood the complexity or potential consequences of it at all - and many of them swallowed all the egregious BS about ‘billions for the NHS’ and ‘regaining our freedom’. The disinformation was crazy, and Cameron just never bothered to mount even a half-arsed case for remaining. His arrogance in the face of such a future-defining decision was breathtaking. So I can understand why some Leavers thought they were doing the right thing, but it’s nevertheless difficult to forgive.

My whole family still hasn’t let my dad off the hook for not only voting leave, but for telling my late mum, who did not have full capacity at the time due to dementia, to do the same. (He only revealed he’d done this after the vote, not before.)

The difference is we were all vocal about it at the time. Voting for something that would conceivably affect life choices, income, educational opportunities and ability to travel for all his children and grandchildren was such a selfish, small-minded thing to do.

His rationale was that he’d voted to remain in the Common Market in 1975, but not for joining the EU, so he saw Brexit as an opportunity to reverse his earlier vote.

We don’t really touch on the subject now because it still feels raw even 10 years later, and though he would never admit it, I don’t think he’d vote the same way again if he had the choice.

This. It never entered the tiny bigoted minds of the majority of the leave voters that ending freedom of movement works both ways.

Or that most of the brown people (or their parents/grandparents) are from outside the EU so irrelevant to whether we're in the EU.

In fact, now its not as easy for EU workers to come here, a lot of the jobs formerly done by EU workers such as hospitality and care work are now done by people from places like Ghana and the Philippines. I bet the average leave voters didn't see that coming.

Selfish isn’t the word I would use. I would use another word that questions her intelligence.

there are repeated stories of akin to this in the US where I live. Trump voters shocked their spouses or close family members are deported.

My MiL voted leave despite having retired to Spain herself. Her reason? ‘It was nicer in the olden days.’
I am still not over the stupidity of that and never will be - it def made me think less of her capacity for rational thought.
As for everyone else’s friends & relatives mentioned on this thread who chose to vote leave: let’s not get too comfortable assuming that this is a blip of the past. Farage is still here, empire building, and will exploit any opportunity to harness simplistic under thinking for his & his billionaire pals’ ends – usually under the: ‘everything is the fault of the boats’ banner.

Well, obviously it’s bloody selfish.