It's shocking but democracy had nothing to do with any of it for many of us. I've posted elsewhere so I'll try to keep it short.
I'm a British tax paying citizen living in France on a British sterling pension. Like many others in my situation I was not allowed my say. We were denied a vote for no valid reason that I can see on the arbitary basis that we had lived in Europe for 15 years.
It is just possible to justify the thought that we shouldn't vote to be represented by a UK politician I suppose, but this was a referendum where a citizen represents her or his self. We disinfranchised pensioners are some of the worst affected by the leave vote, why? Because our position is the exact reverse of this:
EVENING STANDARD 6 July 2016
"Nigel Farage has enjoyed a 12 per cent boost to his earnings thanks to the plunging value of the pound following the Brexit vote.
Mr Farage intends to keep his €100,000 job as a Member of the European Parliament despite resigning as Ukip leader on Monday.
He is paid in euros for the role - meaning he has effectively received a big boost to his annual earnings as a result of the pound's falling exchange rate. Mr Farage receives €98,556 for his basic salary as an MEP, which was worth £75,395 on the day of the EU referendum on June 23.
A pound was worth €1.30 at the time, before it suffered its biggest fall in decades as the Leave result became clear in the early hours of Friday, June 24. Today a pound was exchanging for €1.17 after a drop of 10 per cent against the euro since the day of the poll.
That means Mr Farage's MEP salary is now worth £84,221, a rise of 12 per cent and nearly £9,000."
That isn't all Nigel Farage is paid, there are also various "expenses"....
Daily Telegraph 7th July 2016
"MEPs can claim £120,000 a year in expenses without providing “real proof" of how the money is spent, because EU officials don't want to saddle them with an "administrative burden" which would hamper their freedom, a court heard.
EU expenses chief Frank Antoine-Poirel said that only on “very limited occasions” would MEPs be asked for “real proof” of where MEPs allowances ended up."
Farage had the referendum vote, we didn't. After the referendum, he like Beautiful Boris, immediately cut and ran. Neither were going to face up to the fiction they had been spouting, or the dire consequences.
As I said, many of us pay UK tax on our ruined UK pensions. 'No taxation without representation..." Democracy? The right to have our say? Well no... not really.
Yes there's plenty to fix in the EU but we can now see the disastrous price to be paid when trying to leave. Call their bluff, don't sign Article fifty, stay and get together with the others and seriously tough about deep reform. Do that and watch the pound take off again.