I’m really sorry you feel that way. It’s heartbreaking. I voted to stay, but I don’t feel like that. Hopefully these feelings of yours may subside, but it is terrible to hear you feel so badly at the moment.
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Out of interest, why would he withhold his opinion because he believes in democracy?
My sympathies are with you all of you in Britain. Even here in Australia, we’re already feeling the shockwave of the vote. Hopefully things will settle down soon, but our thoughts are with you.
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I never said that I didn’t read them only that I didn’t let them influence my referendum decision. In fact I read a wide variety of newspapers because I work in a shop that sells them! I even try to read Y Cymro sometimes and get very excited if I can make out the headline 
And thank you for sharing your reasons too. It is always informative to hear someone else’s point of view and I always try to keep an open mind. However, unfortunately, in an in/out referendum we are all forced to weigh up the pros and cons, as we see them, and then pick a side.
I may have been overreacting just a tad - I tend to do that after a few pints ;). I do intend to emigrate after finishing my degree, just because I have a feeling that tech jobs are going to dry up somewhat over the next few years, but that last bit of the post was what happens after I get drunk when I’m already trying to deal with a bunch of negative emotions that I’m not entirely sure how to process; it makes me somewhat irrational.
In answer to your question, I’ve honestly never asked him. I think it’s because he can see a lot of good reasons to vote for every side, depending on one’s point of view, so he’d rather not tell people who to vote for so long as they’ve had a good chance to see all the arguments.
It was only after I heard the result that I realised - surely the European Space Agency and CERN are now out of reach for UK folk? Will Tim Peake be the last British man in space, unless Yr Alban manages to leave UK and stay in EU? How about the folk from Cymru working on the large hadron collider?
Referendums on major constitutional issues like this where opinion is split down the middle will always be divisive - there will those that celebrate and those like me that are in a confused state of mourning.
It is important now that we find a way of pulling together to fix the mess we’re in, but I’m not sure what we will be able to unite around. To some of us symbols and banners, now feel tainted and we need to have a vision for a tolerant, outward looking nation, that we can all buy into. One day I may look again at the welsh flag with pride again, but not today.
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I’m not the one here to judge and don’t want to deny feelings and stands of anyone. I’m devastated too, even more then i maybe should be not being actually directly involved but I have a strong feeling we rather end this discussion here if not for anything else then for respecting the rules of this forum and making the work of @aran, admins and mods on here easier and help maintain this forum enjoyable as it was until now.
Private discussions, of course, were never forbideen though.
And, to make these things clear … some of posts here are very informative and if I’d be the mod, I’d leave most of all posts as they are. Quite some things I didn’t know or was not aware of but let’s not take this discussion too far.
Well, these are my thoughts only though and all the rest, including moderators and admins, may (and I don’t doubt they do) think and feel differently about just stated by me above.
Good luck to all no matter what happens nex in your country though. 
My thoughts are with you all.
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The CERN collaboration pre-dates the EU by a long way. I used to work for an organisation that has a long history of collaboration with CERN, which goes back to the late 1950s or so. We actually contribute money each year for our CERN membership (and this is governed by a treaty I believe - nothing to do with the EU - and don’t forget, Switzerland is not in the EU., Neither is the USA and they work with CERN also. (Our contribution is subject to currency fluctuations which can be problematic, but that’s another story).
Our collaboration with JET (Joint European Torus - the fusion energy research project) also predates the EU, and our membership of the EEC I believe. JET is coming to the end of its life, but its successor, ITER, although based in France, is an international collaboration - world-wide, not just Europe.
Having said that, it’s possible that government research labs like Culham, Rutherford Appleton and Harwell, may suffer from lack of EU contributions in the future. Those are significant employers in this area which is perhaps one reason why we had a strong Remain vote in this area (Vale of White Horse) (and an 81% turnout - much better than the national average).
You could say it was the referendum that was divisive, or alternatively, it has just revealed in very stark terms how very much opinion was divided in the first place.
A previous poster said that people don’t actually know much about the EU, and that is sadly true. But on the other hand, should we not question an institution that is so opaque that it is quite hard to find out exactly how it works? How many people read the Lisbon Treaty? How many read the Maastricht treaty? Even some major politicians were boasting that they hadn’t.
I think in spite of all the fuss, we may end up not actually leaving at all. A lot can happen in two years. And if it does turn out that we end up staying in (perhaps on altered terms), I do hope that this referendum has helped to demonstrate that we really need to understand properly the organisation that we are getting back into.
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Just to say, I think you’re all doing a very good job so far of talking openly about very difficult emotions without falling into the trap of aggression/unfriendliness/etc - I’m proud of you all for your efforts in this thread.
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Mae hynny yn werth y byd i fi, cyfaill
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I did shift a few of us into a couple of PM threads, (now shifted into 1) but I don’t think anything too contentious has even appeared there!
You see the folk here don’t actually want to offend anyone, so anytime we do, it’s inadvertent and we try hard not to!! When I offend, I never realise I have until you slap my paw!!!
Oh, I need a ‘smiley’ of a bashful dragon with a wing over one eye!! Do you think @rhywun would oblige??? (She doesn’t have to be dancing!).
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The joke doing the rounds apparently is that if we are looking for a good man to lead us out of Europe, then Roy Hodgson is available, and looking for a job …
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Do I detect a touch of schadenfreude there, Mike? - tsk, tsk 
Being married to an English woman, I am free of such emotions. Besides, I am definitely a rugby man and not at all inclined to talk about that right now.
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I stated on SSIW Facebook page that I was angry with the politicians for actually setting up the referendum in the first place.
It was an easy question to hugely complex issues.
I am angry that the campaign was so divisive, deceitful and devoid of any facts.
I am more angry that after this catastrophe, people are falling over themselves with the facts, graphs, legal stuff regarding the consequences of leaving the EU. Where were they before the referendum?
People did not make an informed decision.
I didn’t, I ultimately went with my gut instinct not with my intellect. Though I tried to find out as much information as possible. It was lacking compared to what we have heard since that fateful day.
I felt ill hearing ‘only England and Wales’, reminding me of the Encyclopaedia Britannica’s definition of Wales- see England.
Overnight we have gone back 40 years.
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Yup, for all the people who say it was a question which showed people thought this or thought that, anyone who thinks whether we should have stayed in or out is an easy question to answer doesn’t understand the question fully. I’m all for democracy! If only because there is no better alternative. But why on earth choose to have that rare thing, a referendum, over such a complex issue not really suited to a simple answer, when they aren’t held over other things more suited to them?
(Rhetorical question- It was held to sort out internal politics in the Conservative Party by a PM who was gambling for his own personal benefit with the future of not only this country, but in a way the entire world. That isn’t to cast any aspersions on anyone who voted either way!)
And when politicians say “oh, it was just after the assembly elections, and we were tired, and blown out, and couldn’t campaign”…,
Well.
Just well.
Poor them, nurses think and doctors and ambulance drivers and factory workers and clerks and accountants and shop workers and hairdressers and bus drivers and road workers and rubbish collectors and librarians, all of whom of course have the option of stopping working for a bit whenever they’ve had to work a bit harder than usual. Poor them.
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Or no less worse alternative…
Who was it who said that a benevolent tyranny was the most effective form of government, but that a malevolent tyranny was the worst - and came out for democracy as being the least dangerous when it goes wrong, even though it can never be particularly efficient? Aristotle, maybe? Although I could of course be misrepresenting him terribly…
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The really worrying thing is that none of the leading campaigners seems to have had a “plan B” (or perhaps in the case of the Leave-ers, not even a “plan A”! )
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Well now it sounds like whatever fudge might eventually get negotiated will not please many who voted Brexit and we might be looking at another referendum to agree the terms. I thought we elected politicians to make complex decisions on our behalf, but all the politicians seem to have disappeared at the moment and we might have to hold referendums on everything or maybe create some X-factor style voting system.