Brexit Testimonies

"As a child who had lived through the second world war and the subsequent fearful times that followed, I was convinced that the only real guarantee for a continuous peace in Europe was to work towards a united states of Europe. My life’s dream has now been shattered."

This is going to be the saddest week of my life. I am 81 years old and have been living in Germany since 1971. I was given the opportunity to come here by my company and a three year contract became a lifetime. My working life has been spent selling British goods and services to mainland European countries.

As a young man and as vice president of the British Junior Chambers of Commerce and as a convinced European, I accompanied Ted Heath on a number of occasions, putting our case for membership of the EU. As a child who had lived through the second world war and the subsequent fearful times that followed, I was convinced that the only real guarantee for a continuous peace in Europe was to work towards a united states of Europe. My life’s dream has now been shattered.

Not only has my life been shattered on the political front but also on the personal front. Working for a British company, I continued to contribute to my company’s staff pension scheme. On retirement, there was no question of returning tot he UK as our children and grandchildren are all living in Germany. My pension was adequate to maintain a comfortable standard of living, but since the Brexit vote, we have seen a cut of over 20% in our income thanks to the continuous devaluation of the pound sterling. This has led to a fundamental change in our style of living. We have had to make severe cuts in our outgoings and our long-planned holidays have been severely curtailed. All the plans which we had made prior to retirement have had to be abandoned. At our age we feel cheated and what makes things worse is that we have absolutely no say in the political decisions which have so sorely affected us.

To safeguard our status in this country, both my wife and I have acquired German citizenship. We never thought that we would need to take this step.

Strength to your hands in the good work which you are undertaking, but I see everything very black at the moment. The Brexiteers have won the day and I regret that I am most unlikely to see the day when they will regret their decision.