to ask why several prominent members seem to have vanished?!?

Oldgoat has posted today callgirl on the York meet up thread.

Prolific posters are also old if belonging to Gransnet. They could well be dead. How would anyone know? Or they may find that their tablet logs them out willy nilly and they can't be bothered to log in every time. And Mumsnet is often a bit more interesting. I never look at the political threads because I know what I think and I'm always right. Re Brexit I'm astonished at the number of people who object to democracy.

I`ve just realised, after all the talk of missing posters, I haven`t seen anything from Oldgoat for a while, hope she`s OK.

If we had a wave emoticon, or a like button, Id be waving and liking your post MaggieMaybe.
I'm a Leaver. I accept the vote. I wish Cameron had said it would be advisory. No referendum is binding in law. Humph.

Digression over

No pets here at the moment, but I do have some Grand-dogs and cats

I think the digressing happened (started) a while back

Jalima- she is indeed a bit of a miracle. Very thin now, does not go out and sleeps a lot, but eats so well and jumps on my bed first thing in morning and when I go to bed- or whenever I go up to out bedroom- and purrs and purrs her little heart out.

The first dog we adopted, Pepper, was with us for 18 years and he was also 'estimated' at 4 when we found him. Even Slinky the dachs was with daughter then ourselves for 17 years- and was no puppy when rescued. Our first cat, Thomas, when in Newcastle-u-Lyme, was 18 when we had to phts.

We have been blessed with their longeivity- perhaps, apart from Slinky the Dachs- because they were all mongrels. Our current adopties are Danish Jack Russel types, and at 13 and 11- just look and behave like puppies. We are very lucky.

But we digress, it seems.

With regard to those who have lived abroad for more than 15 years - I can see it can be said to be reasonable in General Elections for them not to be able to vote, but the referendum result is likely to directly affect many more of those living in the EU than those still in the U.K. Exactly how is unclear at the moment and there is little point in worrying about it as the goal posts are constantly changing.
It is only the General Election and the EU elections that ex-pats can vote in anyway - they are allowed to vote in the local elections of the country they live in.

And Remainers are still belittling those who voted to leave the EU
Not all of us Day6 - some of us have been appalled by the subtle nastiness and the demands for Brexiteers to predict accurately what will happen in the future.

No-one can do that - events happen constantly which are out of our control.

I agree with your post Wed 11-Apr-18 17:13:35 Maggiemaybe

Aren’t most of us old Jalima?
Very, lemongrove but Pudding must be about 140!!

'The democratic rights I wanted'

the democracy 'type' of your country is not what you want or do not want it to be - it is what it is- and ours is a Parliamentary Democracy - whether you or I, want it or not.

Well said maggiemaybe much as some regret the outcome of the Referendum, the real farce or do I mean tragedy, was why it was held in the first place, badly thought through and badly managed. One can only assume that DC and his cronies were so arrogant as to assume it was a done deal.
The EU may well implode before our exit is final - the issue of refugees seems to be violently divisive and it may be that like rats leaving the sinking ship, we were right to do it before getting our paws wet. Who is to say?
But bleating about it, flogging the proverbial dead horse is profoundly depressing and getting us nowhere.

Well, no one can answer the O/P question it seems

My country's government is standing by the vote too, jura. While I accept that my country and my country's government (of whatever political colour) is not perfect, I also know that it's not rotten to the core.

I think most people could and can always see through what I will call the poetic licence of political campaigns. I really don't think that any but a handful of people took the bus slogan literally, for instance, nor do I think it was meant literally.

Yes, there are different grades of democracy. The democratic rights I wanted with regard to the EU were not available to me so I wanted out.

Sadly the brexit supporters have nothing positive to say and shut down debate with "we won, you lost, suck it up remoaners, its the will of the people blah, blah, blah".

And Remainers are still belittling those who voted to leave the EU. If the above has been your experience Varian then I am sorry - although all three points are true. I have engaged in some wonderful debates regarding Brexit. It's very true to say too that those who wanted to remain can only come up with "What about the economy" and when you ask them to enlarge all they can do is speculate. There is no depth there either.

I suspect the three who left got tired of defending Corbyn. I say that in jest, as I am not a fan.

People come and go. That is the nature of online debate. I daresay they will resurface with different names in the near future.

I’ll drink to that Maggie Cheers!

Do you know, this is quite pleasant. Being able to post on a (quasi) political thread without anticipating the inevitable sarky comeback from a "prominent" poster!

I can't disagree with the principle that ex-pats who have lived abroad for over 15 years shouldn't have a vote on what happens in the UK. I can remember being furious in 1975 when I couldn't vote in that referendum because I'd moved to Germany a few weeks earlier. Though if I had been able to vote then, I'd have been on the losing side twice.

It's an absolute b****r in my opinion that the referendum wasn't simply advisory - ruddy Cameron has a lot to answer for - but we all knew when voting that the result would be implemented. We remainers lost, so have no option but to respect that. As for those who simply couldn't be bothered to vote, their views just aren't relevant.

Sigh! Indeed

MawBroon - I have lived all my adult life in the UK - so it is only natural that I base comments on experience. I am so grateful to those women actually- as they encouraged me to move to a more mixed area and to go back to full-time study aged 29- where I met many fabulous British women who were interested in the wider world and with whom it was a great pleasure to share info and ideas, opinions- from a wide spectrum.

There are many here who say the same btw- and yes, it was a real embarrassment to me re the vote only in 71- when I already lived in UK. I was frustrated all my life by the FPP system though- which meant that my vote always ended up in the bin (and I knew this as I voted) - which made 'having the right the vote' a bit meaningless.

Baggs, I am amazed that you would still stand by the vote with all the info available to date about the manipulation and irregularities committed on many, many fronts- proven and fact.

What does 'democracy' mean? Many democratic systems have VERY different types of 'democracy'- defined by their Constitution, written or otherwise. Switzerland has a system of direct Democracy, where a Referendum is binding. The UK has its own Sovereign PARLIAMENTARY Democracy- where major decisions and laws are made by our elected Parliamentary Representatives, our MPs - both democratic, in their own way. Cameron By-Passing our Sovereign Parliament in promising a binding Referendum, which by out own laws and statute can only ever be advisory- was plain anti our own system of Democracy. he had no right to do so, and no mandate.

Thank you for arguing those points, maw. I haven't the strength but I certainly don't feel I have done anything wrong by voting Leave.

Corbyn has been anti-EU for decades. Why would he change now?

Thank you, kitty. That is appreciated and reciprocated.

jura, I think if there were any illegality concerned it would have been shown up and acted upon by now. The frustration felt by people about the points you raise is probably similar to the frustration people like me began to feel about EU bureaucratic power over which we had no direct say. At least I could vote out David Cameron at some point. Not so Juncker et al.

I had been very pro-EU initially. The vote was about democracy for me. The referendum campaign, lies or otherwise, was irrelevant as far as my vote was concerned. My concern for democracy had already decided me.

Maw that could be sung to ‘here we go gathering nuts in May’