It was interesting to note that, during the run-up to the Brexit (Braustritt/Brortie) referendum there was a certain amount of coverage in the UK press given to the fact that many UK citizens were disenfranchised because they had been living outside the UK for "too long". There was an attempt to get this position over-ruled, and it failed. As a result, many UK citizens living and working in the EU were deliberately excluded from deciding the UK's future on the global stage.
This is nothing new. There have been ongoing campaigns to re-establish the franchise for expatriate UK citizens for many years. The International Antidisenfranchisement League has also done its small part in highlighting the ongoing undemocratic and parochial disenfranchisement of expatriate citizens.
The outcome of the referendum is bad for the European ideal, bad for the stability and cooperation it engenders and bad the individual Europeans now facing the prospect of an island neighbour more insular than ever. The good news is that the media have been prompted by Brexit-fever to highlight the UK's disenfranchisement of a significant part of its potential electorate.
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