And yet ultimately the question was "who do we want to be governed by"? Did we want to run ourselves or did we want to increasingly be governed by an unelected elite in Brussels?

Over the past few hundred years blood has been spilt when people have revolted over this apparently trivial issue, and sometimes the "oppressors" have been less oppressive than The EU has been to its client states [[a little spat in and around 1776 comes to mind here), this hasn't stopped future generations from stating how proud they are to have gained their independence all those years ago, or heartily singing anthems to that effect.

The "remain" camp, of course, tried to gloss over all of this and attempted to present the referendum as a test with the question being "if these are the facts will you be be better off if The UK leaves or remains in The EU?" Anyone who came up with the "wrong" answer would find themselves being reviled as being insular/backward etc. etc. "The Facts" of course, were wildly exaggerated.

Furthermore, although The EU likes to portray itself as a centre of culture and prosperity their continuing drive to further integration [[in particular the imposition of The Euro currency over half of the continent) is causing immense economic hardship for those outside of the core areas located in and around Germany, as can be seen by their own website's page on unemployment rates throughout the different regions of Europe ....

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statist...regional_level

Back in the early 1980s British Pop/Reggae act UB40 famously had a hit song called "The One In Ten" that protested about the high rates of unemployment that were endemic in The UK at that time, a modern day UB40 from countries that use The Euro such as France, Finland or Italy could similarly record the same song today, if they were in Spain or Greece they could sing about "The One In Four" or even "The One In Three". And yet, although we didn't help to create this mess we are expected to help pay for it as "Good Europeans".

And, in spite of the fact that we do elect members to a "European Parliament" this organisation doesn't propose any legislation, it is little more than a forum for rubber-stamping proposals made by an organisation called "The European Commission" [[effectively "The European Parliament" has a purpose very similar to The House of Lords in the UK Parliament in London). The European Commission itself is not elected, it is appointed by a President who himself is appointed behind doors by the leaders of the National Governments, as is eloquently explained by The EUs own website ...

http://ec.europa.eu/about/index_en.htm

Not exactly government of the people, for the people and by the people is it??!!

Anyway, in spite of all the whining from those who think we got the question "wrong" it does look at the moment that Brexit will occur, however The EU has a long and shameful history of ignoring similar votes concerning "ever closer union" over the last two decades in countries such as Ireland, France and The Netherlands so I would suggest you all still hold your breath for the next two months.

Anyway, I'm about to invoke my own Article 50 as shortly I shall be heading out to The Pub to watch the England football team play against The Mighty Iceland [[that is the Non-EU island nation in the North Atlantic and not The Supermarket)

Roger