for Expats in the EU who voted remain, to be relly upset and angry at neighbours and 'friends' who have voted to leave?

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I cannot imagine what you think gives you the right to make this sort of personal attack Labaik
It is total garbage- my political allegiance is entirely my own affair and you know nothing at all about me. Frankly, I’d like to keep it that way.

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As a child I can remember whining to my parents “It’s not fair” and getting the crisp reply, “Nobody ever promised it would be”
What about the Windrush generation?
Was the U.K. fair to them?
What about WASPI women? Was that fair?
Sh*t happens and sometimes you just have to get on with it.

But what if you factor in all of those things and then someone comes along and completely changes everything in a way that was totally unexpected? Isn't that unfair. Especially if it's done by a country that you've pretty much devoted your life to that then just treats you like a pesky foreigner. What if the EU had decided to change all the rules for ex pats regarding driving licences/health insurance etc?[of course British people living abroad are ex pats, not immigrants]. expats immigrants would be justified in their anger, would they not?

The quote was from Donald Rumsfeld who stated:

“Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.

But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.”

So while I am sorry for anybody who chose to buy in a cheap part of a country and then can’t resell their property because nobody wants to live there - well why was it cheap in the first place?

Nail on head Maw.

And as with any major lifestyle choice - there will always be ‘the unknown unknowns’. Great quote and SO true.

MawB totally agree.

At the risk of offending expats I also believe everything we do has consequences and comes at a cost
If I choose to live in another lovely part of the country , it will cost me money for the property but also cost in terms of leaving friends behind. it might also cost in terms of inferior transport facilities and the dependence on a car.
For instance, I would love to live nearer the DDs in London, but the cost (as well as bring prohibitive) would include being further away from the other DGcs in Birmingham.
In the same way if I were to choose to go and live in another country the “cost” may include reduced access to my children and grandchildren, the vicissitudes of the exchange rate and lots of things like the language, local habits, health insurance, driving licence, administrative details etc.
I imagine you factor those into your decision making, bearing in mind that life can bowl the odd googlie.
So while I am sorry for anybody who chose to buy in a cheap part of a country and then can’t resell their property because nobody wants to live there - well why was it cheap in the first place? The same applies in the UK. If you see what I mean.
Nothing is for nothing.

Exactly, Sparkling.

If you up sticks and move to another country, why would you expect the country you leave to look after you?

Laibak

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Hope this helps.

Don't worry Labaik.
That's why I don't like this kind of thread. It just stirs up hostile feelings. Even in me - usually so placid.
And no positive results.

Apologies for being so ignorantly stupid MawB…..

Thanks Maw for saying that. Praise indeed, coming from you in my opinion!
?

Good and informed post Urmstongran !
Labaik - really hard to work out who said what when you neither use the italic facility for quotes or the bold convention for usernames.

At the time of the referendum it was a BIG THING. A once in a generation choice and the result would be respected.

To be honest I was shocked (delighted, but still) when Leave won. Who’d have thought it? I couldn’t believe it - against all the odds, all the polls. Stunned the next morning. The Establishment could not believe it either.

We were over in Spain having used our postal vote. Whilst joyous inside (we celebrated together that lunchtime) we did not go around ‘crowing’. In fact as the days passed we realised that with all the fury evident in the media and elsewhere (our eldest daughter couldn’t bring herself to ring me for almost a week) we decided it best to keep our voting preference to ourselves.

Some may say say we were cowardly. I think not. I wanted to be joyous and excited about the result but the atmosphere was tainted. It felt wrong somehow to even want to celebrate.

Within that toxic situation when feelings were febrile why on earth would anyone want to inflame the situation? Besides which, with such anti Brexit feelings swirling about it would just seem jingoistic. I made a decision then to lie low - not because I was cowardly but because I was aware and sensitive.

And anyway, even now almost 4y on no one knows how negations on ex pats rights will pan out. Maybe I’m naive but I think this storm will pass and common sense on both sides will ensure health provision will be reciprocal. We will of course just have to wait and see but just as some like to paint a dire picture I honestly think pragmatism on both sides will prevail.

Enough already we are going round in circles on this thread.

'Well Labaik Urmstongran; how sensitive of you to not divulge to your neighbours in Malaga that you voted for something that will make their lives more difficult

Oh that’s a bit po-faced isn’t it? Why should I - who lives in the U.K. remember - vote contrary to my wishes for the ex pats (who have made their choices!)?'
...actually I think it's downright cowardly of you to not tell your friends abroad that you voted for something that would cause them problems. Funny isn't it that remainers have been accused of calling leave voters stupid and of bullying them and yet in the past day or so we've been called 'po faced' and 'fools'.

I did wonder if Ooeysit meant the GE which reinforced the Brexit vote.

No, I don't think brexiteers are thick uneducated morons, they just think differently to me

Ooeysit I have accepted the democratic vote as have all of my friends . It was a landslide
What was? The referendum? You didn't think that would get past us, did you

jura I cannot believe you even introduced Brexit into a RIP thread about one of our national treasures.


I know some people are always 'glass half empty' types but your glass is becoming drained and it cannot be doing you any good. Trying to look on the positives in any situation may help.

'Every cloud has a silver lining' was my DM's motto and helped her through many difficult times.

Jura you seem to have touched a nerve here now with some posters.

Perhaps let the ex pats you know sort themselves out - one way or another - without getting involved?

I have, thanks

Then what are you bleating about it all for?
You dislike the UK because its not as clean and tidy as Switzerland but forget that the population there is less than 9 million -v- almost 67 million here.
You complain bitterly that your UK pension is subject to the vagaries of currency fluctuation and yet chose to move to Switzerland.
You despise those who voted for Brexit and yet live in a country that elected not to join the EU.
You complain that your travel insurance, to enable you to travel to your holiday home, and your holidays elsewhere in the world, are "extortionate" and yet fail to recognise the irony of the fact that you plead poverty from a diminishing UK pension and millions of UK pensioners have zero chance of a holiday anywhere at all.

And yet this thread was started not about you but about the plight of all the other poor ex pats in Switzerland. I'm speechless jura. You have absolutely no idea how privileged and lucky you are in comparison to millions of other pension age people, who are living on the breadline, with none of your worries but dozens of other, more pressing and detrimental problems of their own.

Get a grip.