Hacker News Reader

Comment by Retric | Hacker News Reader

~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.

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.

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.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com