~95% of expats were against brexit, but interview enough people and you can eventually find some real fools.

It’s just another case of a news agency focusing on entertaining people even if it’s misleading them.

I'd disagree mildly. I remember that around the time the UK actually left the EU, a newspaper in Dubai (strongly against Brexit) interviewed a group of British expats. Out of the responses, only a quarter were mildly against Brexit while the rest were actively in favor of it. The numbers were even further skewed if I were to incorporate personal conversations.

In general, I've found Brits outside the UK in touristy/retiree expat hotbeds like Spain, Portugal or Dubai to be extremely in favor of Brexit, and mostly racist. Britons in the Isles or in other countries tend to be really friendly and open minded. This could be a reflection of the kind of expats who move to places - older expats might choose sunny places like Spain or Dubai while younger expats might prefer to settle down in the US or Germany, where there are better career opportunities.

Polls said EU expats where very much in favor of staying.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/eu-referendum-three-quart...

In France, Germany and Portugal, Stay was on just over 77 per cent, below Austria on 85 per cent.

In Sweden, the figure was 59 per cent, 60 per cent in Cyprus, 66 per cent in Italy, 73 per cent in Spain and 74 per cent in Belgium.

I guess it could be said that 1800 of the demographic which reads the Evening Standard is not an accurate reflection of the British expat population too. Unless we have demographic data on how they were polled, it can't be taken at face value. My data was also mostly a reflection of the expat demographic I was in touch with most (45+ male and female), so I guess that observation too cannot be taken at face value without a more randomized set.

yes but if you flip the numbers is gets weird. a third of expats in Italy wanted the UK to leave the EU? that doesn't mean it would be hard to find someone to interview for "entertainment". Every third group should have someone.

Find someone that wanted to leave the EU and is fine with the new situation isn’t enough, they needed to find people who voted to go and then where significantly negativity impacted.

Yeah, and I'm sure the author of this article worked hard to find that one paydirt quote which feeds its audiences' preconceptions... especially if the stats about how expats voted in the Brexit referendum someone else posted are correct. (Or maybe they didn't even bother? I've never heard of this news site, it looks like a generic WordPress theme and it's registered anonymously. All the usual fake news warning signs are there but it just fits everyone's preconceptions so well...)

Here is the same article from an established, pro-Brexit news website:

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1415577/Brexit-news-...

Edit: Saw too late to delete that The Express also got it from Global247news, which seems to be less than a year old according to https://whois.domaintools.com/global247news.com

If this is a fake news article, the Daily Express indeed also fell for it because it's clearly where they copied that from: 'Anthony Cook, who has lived in Spain for seven years, told Global247news: “The Spanish dream is over for me, it’s time to go back to Cardiff."' This happens a lot more with fake news than it really ought to, and with publications a lot more respectable and trusted than the Express.

Which begs the question what did this person think they were voting for if not that?

I get that sometimes people aren't sure what the fine details of something might be on a complex issue, but it's right there in the slogan: "out of the EU"

They are people driven by the same bullshit nativist propaganda.

I live in a very democratic city. My neighbor down the block is a ~45 year old retired first responder due to a disabling knee injury. He’s mostly at home watching cable news during the week and transformed into a die-hard “conservative”, with the flags, stickers, etc.

Great guy, but deluded by propaganda. We usually talk fishing and baseball, as our sons play together. I avoid political talk at all times as the irony of a young, disabled former unionized government employee with free healthcare is both anti-gov and anti-union is too much for me.

You have some discipline. At some point I would open up that Pandora’s box, kids or not.

It’s always the “others”.

Someone I know recently lamented that their daughter (who has a physical disability) would no longer qualify for certain subsidies for a prosthesis because they don’t have a job. However the daughter’s husband does have a full time job, and the daughter home schools her daughter. They still qualify for some SNAP benefits (food stamps). The idea that The State wouldn’t make an allowance for this situation was galling to them. I agreed. But within 5 minutes they were back to complaining about welfare queens who don’t have jobs.

I like that you assume they were thinking.

That is absolutely hilarious - funniest thing I’ve read today. You can’t make this stuff up.

It's good for clicks - the thick-as-pigshit expat Leave voter sawing the branch underneath themselves. In reality most Brits in Europe did not vote Leave, but of course the media have to two-sides everything for "balance".

It's the top story on https://www.reddit.com/r/LeopardsAteMyFace/