To admit I didn't vote in the Brexit Referendum?

[WeAreTheCrystalGems]

I'm one of the 28% who didn't vote. Anyone else?

I didn’t vote. At the time, I thought a big change is needed here, but as no one could (and still can’t) confirm what the proposed change actually entails, I didn’t want to vote for either.

What makes you think you should have been able to vote?

Well, as someone who has lived abroad and continues to vote in British elections, perhaps you could tell me why you voted?

MrsAriande
I am allowed to vote in a country in which I have not lived since the 60's
Australians are required to vote wherever they live
Why should Brits lose the vote after 15 years overseas?

Sorry but this is Aibu.
It is giving me rage inside that all you intelligent human beings didn’t have enough confidence in your ability to understand.

Good. You recognised your limitations.

MrsAriadne said on another thread that she's a permanent resident in Canada and has lived in 24 countries but votes in UK elections (she can correct me if I misunderstood any of that.)

But Britons in the EU shouldn't have had the right to vote in the referendum? Yeah right.

Where people live is irrelevant.
How they actually voted in June 2016 is increasingly irrelevant.

What matters now is how they will react to the events of the coming months.

Those who voted leave should be proud of the headlines.
Those who did not vote should accept that they abdicated their opinion.
Those who voted remain should POLITELY find ways through what is coming.

@Mistigri

That not what I said at all!

Better luck next time!

The constant chant "people who voted for Brexit must be idiots" is very wearing.

Not everyone who thinks the EU is imperfect is stupid. It is a good idea in principle - but is seriously flawed. The Euro more so.

The interest rate of the Euro is set for German needs, and it fails to grasp that fixed exchange rate systems switch currency risk into default risk. Anyone who thinks we "bailed out Greece" is missing the point that what we actually did was bail out German ( and French) banks.

I do not blame anyone for not wanting to be part of that. In fact, I am a little incredulous that so many educated people are only extolling wonders of the EU and how we should remain, without looking into the economics a little more deeply.

Read reports from LSE or e.g. Professor Issing, Mark Copelovitch, Jeffry Frieden, Stefanie Walter.

The founding chief economist of the European bank has described it thus " One day, the house of cards will collapse"

The only way it could survive would be to federalise. It is biased, extremely expensive and unwieldy in its current form. I wouldn't vote for it.

And if we were in the Euro zone that would be an issue, but we aren't. So your point is?

Crunchie
The UK is neither in the Euro nor Schengen. Never was, never would be.

I do not call Brexiters idiots.
I do ask them how they think the vote will make their day to day lives better.
I am still awaiting an answer

I agree, CrunchieFriday, with a lot of what you say, and when people say that is why they voted leave (never heard it in person), I respect that. The EU is most definitely not perfect, and is hard to reform. I am really sad we didn't stay to try to improve it. My hope is that some good will come of us leaving, as the EU pulls together in the forthcoming shitstorm. I can only hope.

Leavers are very sensitive about being called stupid but they don't help themselves.

On several threads this week I have explained the EU is democratic. How can posters still say it isn't? If you are that will fully ignorant after all this debate what are you if not stupid?

On the thread that was deleted today the OP, who was a leaver, listed a range of problems and said she knows they are not the fault of the EU but leaving the EU might solve them.

We are not in the Euro zone or Schengen no one wants us to join, it's just not relevant. I'm no economist but if the Euro zone collapses it impacts us if we are in or out.

I am politically aware but I know enough to know I don't know enough economically to make sound judgments. Many Brexit voters insist they did lots of research and are fully informed and then make statements that indicate this is not the case.

The whole debate is founded on sand, lies and misjudgments.

@Moussemoose

It must be wonderful to be so intellectually gifted, so absolutely correct in all your assertions, never doubting for a moment that your worldview is the very one everyone else should aspire to. If only everyone thought as you did. What a beautiful world this would be!

It's actually really frustrating and horrible, MrsAriadneOliver.

Mousse why was the thread started by a leaver deleted?

I voted, and I gave someone a lift to the polling station who voted the opposite, so yeah, basically made no difference there.

Just because you didn't vote either way on Brexit, doesn't mean you can't reasonably criticise the complete shitshow it's turned into.

TaPeace - there was a thread earlier today that explained that poster's reasons for voting to leave - basically her life and her dc's life were so shit it couldn't get any worse. The thread did remain surprisingly polite for longer than is usual here, even a bit of empathy for the OP too, until the 'boot boys and gals' piled in and the thread got deleted.

Most pps agreed that it was uk govt and not the EU that ignored the deprived areas. So, does it make any difference if the UK is an EU member to our poorest areas then? Well we will find out.

It really can't get any worse for a lot of uk people and it is worth a shot for a lot of people to see if leaving the EU can make a difference or not. There is the possibility that it can despite the naysayers.

To answer your question how a Leave vote might improve the lives of the UK Poor - the answer is that no one knows, but for many it is worth changing the status quo just to see if that might start to see some changes. For many, it really can't get much worse, and if it does in the long term, then we will have only ourselves to blame.

'It really can't get much worse'

Really? Really??

Ta1kin I tried to give answers to you today and was savaged and ridiculed. The moderators deleted the thread, as it became so insultingYou and many others want no answer other than. "We're sorry. you are superior to us thick dobbers, we're happy for you to ride roughshod over our choice, belittle and deny our experiences and go back to ignoring us" All whilst tugging our forlocks and grovelling whilst you kick us!

The thread did remain surprisingly polite for longer than is usual here, even a bit of empathy for the OP too, until the 'boot boys and gals' piled in and the thread got deleted.

That answers my question to mousse.
Some of the attacks on Brexit threads are very unpleasant. The other day someone described leave voters as ‘oiks’. I’d always thought that was a taboo word on mumsnet and normally there would be a flurry of biscuits and furious responses, but as it referred to a leave voter hardly anyone objected. The word ‘thick’ is also disapproved of generally, except when referring to leave voters in which case it seems to be fine.

@Ta1kinPeace that's not true. As an Australian living out of the country for 10 years i didn't vote or have to. I've only just returned to Aus and registered to vote again.

I didn't vote either. I just couldn't do it. I read both arguments and still couldn't make sense of it, I didn't want to vote for something I'd regret.

I can respect not voting because, despite having read info from both sides, you couldn't make a decision/ didn't want to make a decision you feared you'd later come to regret.
I really can't respect failing to vote due to apathy. People died so we have the right to vote. We should at least make the effort.