'Sad over likely break-up of UK'
Stephen Ridley ), who lives in Limoux, Aude, explains why he was an unenthusiastic Remain voter.
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In 2013, my partner Neil and I bought a holiday home in what is to become Occitanie Pyrénées-Méditerranée.
My sister Viv is married to a German and has lived just outside Frankfurt for nearly 50 years. She wrote commiserating after the referendum vote. Here is part of my reply:
"I cannot say I was surprised by the referendum vote. I should be a natural Europhile. I campaigned 'Yes' in the 1975 poll, thought we should join the Euro and have wished the UK would play a more positive role in the EU for years. But I do not believe that the German or French people really want the United States of Europe which the 'ever closer union' forced on them by the political elites, the Merkels and Hollandes, would inevitably bring.
The EU is NOT democratic. The EU Parliament has NO power and the Commission (especially Juncker) has too much.
Consequently, although I voted to Remain, I was unenthusiastic because of the failure of the EU, and particularly Angela Merkel, to understand, among other things, that it is WRONG for people to be able to come to the UK and claim social security straight away; WRONG to force their half-baked ideas of 'ever closer union' on Germany, France and the other 25. WRONG.
The deal offered was insufficient. We have tried to persuade the EU to reform from inside and we have failed. You cannot continue banging your head against a brick wall while the Merkels and Hollandes do not listen.
We will have to suffer the consequences of leaving the Free Trade area, and I am deeply saddened that it is likely that the UK will cease to exist. But England will survive. England will survive."
