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Having enjoyed the status of immigrant/emigrant – depending on which side of the North Sea you view it from – for much more than 15 years, I was not allowed a vote in the Brexit referendum. Therefore, I have not had the privilege of seeing an actual ballot paper. Can anyone tell me just how the question was worded? I imagined a simple yes/no type of question, along the lines of ‘Should the UK remain a member of the EU?’ Answer YES or NO. When the whole democratic process of the referendum had ended the answer was a very democratically decided “ NO, the UK should not remain in the EU”. I, bless my naivety, expected the NO voters to be delighted and the YES voters to be disappointed. I, bless my naivety again, expected the British to accept the decision with good grace and let the government - who are not only paid to do so but also democratically elected to do so – get the business done. Oh, silly me. The NO voters are still whining. Why? You won, for heaven’s sake! As far as I know you weren’t asked in the referendum HOW the exit should take place or WHEN it should take place. However, you have had your chance to say WHO should get the job done. Britain, being the democracy that it is, has a democratically elected parliament and government. It was elected by both the No and the YES voters. That parliament includes an opposition and the government is only as effective as that opposition allows it to be. That’s the great thing about democracy – EVERYBODY gets to have their say. The sad side of democracy is that you can’t please everybody. Stop getting your knickers in a twist over what’s to be. The quality of good, substantial British knicker –elastic being what it is means you’ll probably strangle yourself in the process. I feel a song coming on: Que será será whatever will be will be, the future’s not ours to see, que será será Eggy, should we start a choir?

Looks like we are stuck with Lavery then

I'll start with your last sentence, : it's not 'my' country, and nor is it yours; it never has been, and it never will be. I'm not sure why you find that so hard to understand. It has nothing to do with the meaning of the word 'my', and nor does it have anything to do with belonging or duty, and your rather insulting comment inferring that I'm somehow being disrespectful to past and future generations is rather laughable. Something you seem unable to get is that future generations - in this country and others - will not consist of white Christians only (as if they ever did) but of a mix of races, religions and beliefs; if you actually think there is something that can be done about that, I'll label you with one of your favourite words - deluded. "as an inveterate socialist" Who said I'm a socialist? I might have read, and enjoyed, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, but that doesn't define me. I prefer not to be pigeonholed, thanks, and it's one of the reasons I stopped replying to your posts - you are one-sided, and often extremely boring with it. And, I might add, living firmly in the past. As for the Brexit vote being advisory - it was; that was clear to anyone who bothered to look beyond your apparently authoritative rantings and read the cross-section of information elsewhere. Things move on and it now appears we are heading for a watered-down version of what was originally planned, which is no surprise whatsoever. So, my turnip picking friends won't get sent home, but then they were never going to. The problem I have with you - and as I don't know you, the 'you' I refer to is that of your words on here - is that I find you innately annoying in your holier than thou tone; you believe - quite clearly from what you write - that you know best, and we should all follow. You don't; you are a stuck record, probably one of those spoken record 15RPM ones that nobody bothers with anymore. You are so worked up about the 'problem' with Islam that you fail to see the wood for the trees. Here's a simple fact that is worth thinking about: there's more than a billion Muslims in the world - what are you proposing we do about it? You want an 'us and them' scenario? Is that going to work out well? You want to define areas where they can live? That's really a 21st century approach, isn't it? I don't know whether Mohammed pissed in your cornflakes one morning, but frankly your ongoing assertion that Islam is the root of every problem is tiresome. That would be people, of all religions, of all races, of all ages and beliefs. I really hope that - as you do me - I've annoyed you enough for you to come back with some apparently intelligent retort, because I have quite a bit of time on my hands here at the moment - turnips are being picked, shot enough partridges for the week, guess I'll pop down the pub for a pint or two with those horrible Polish blokes who you and your ilk would like to send home, but who are actually just people, doing a job, getting on with life. The horses need feeding, back later. Oh, before I go, I'll highlight this: "I leave the matter of whether you regularly attempt to diminish and deride your own country up to others to judge." I fear your confidence in others siding with you may be somewhat flawed. No, I'll change that; I know your confidence in others siding with you IS flawed.

The BBC are reporting that Ian Lavery received £165,000 from NUM..... Perhaps ex-miners should make a complaint about the financial affairs of the union. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41688280

"You deride your own country" What utter nonsense. Furthermore, it's not my country, I never owned it and never will, and it would be great to see others recognise this. "Glad it was you who raised the shocking increase in crime. " What, you, cherry-picking? I am amazed! The 'shocking' increase in crime is but one solitary figure in a broad and comprehensive report. I draw your attention to the comment from the spokesman for the Office for National Statistics, the body that released the report, who says: ""The recent increases in recorded crime need to be seen in the context of the overall decline in crime indicated by the Crime Survey for England and Wales," Decline means fall, by the way (and no, I make no apology about being factious towards someone who, in accusing me of deriding 'my' country - which isn't mine - is equally so towards me). Like most, I can see both sides of the coin here: I see the pros and cons of Brexit - and have drawn the conclusion that there are equal measures of each (hence my sympathy with my turnip-picking friends) and also accept - along with Eggy - that I cast my vote, and it wasn't the result I wanted. That's life, it's how it goes. It doesn't mean I have to be happy about it. Although, to be honest, I'm pretty ambivalent, as I'm sensible enough to see that I shouldn't really worry too much about it, as has also been pointed out on here. So, to reiterate - it's not your country, and it's not mine, and it never will be. It's a chunk of land that we happen to live on, and so do many other people. Crime is not spiralling at an alarming rate because of Muslims (oh, sorry, you didn't say that, did you? That was Mr Trump) and we are not all doomed to live in a society that is broken and failing, thanks to the immigrant population. The world is not about to end, and life goes on. Incidentally, and for the record, I live in a region with a low crime rate, and a high proportion of immigrants. Make of that what you will.