As I write, there are displaced people in London unable to return to their homes in a tower block. Much as I feel for them, their lives will return to normal again, sooner or later. What feels unfair is that their plight is being given more air-time than people such as myself whose lives are on a semi-permanent hold at the moment.

I am a British citizen who has lived on the mainland of Europe – by choice – since 1980.

I have a job and support myself, and live quite happily in my ‘adopted’ country, the Netherlands.

Until David Cameron made good on his promise of a referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU, there wasn’t a cloud on the horizon. I wasn’t a burden on the UK tax payer, and am fully insured, also for health, in the Dutch system.

It all went pear-shaped for me a year ago. Of the around 1 million UK citizens living abroad, only those still possessing voting rights in the UK were allowed to take part in the referendum. That was the first downer for me!

The result, clearly the second!

By the time I retire, just after the Brexit deadline in 2019, there will be serious consequences for my pension. EU rules allow for consolidating pension entitlement from different countries; that will not apply to me post-Brexit with respect to my UK contributions. I would have to apply separately for that – and the UK rules now are a minimum of 10 years’ contributions. I have 7. That means I can kiss goodbye to any OAP entitlement from the UK. I am not allowed to buy in to it either.

I will now have to rely on my pension entitlements from the countries I have lived in within the EU. My most recent summary would not even pay my rent, let alone leave me money for anything else. Losing the UK component – which I worked for – will be decisive.

Bitter? Yes! Very many Brits go abroad only for holidays, and then only to places where they can still get their fish-and-chips. Fractionally just more than half of those that voted last year following the most farcical campaign in recent history, voted to leave the EU. I was not allowed a say.

Yesterday, the UK government announced in the Commons the ‘deal’ they proposed for EU nationals living in the UK. Their counter demand is that the EU allows Brits in EU countries the same rights.

What they have forgotten is that the EU actually does not have the power to determine how member countries treat non-EU citizens! Each country has the right to decide the terms themselves. It doesn’t seem likely that 27 countries will agree on a common, generous approach!

I am getting really tired of Scotland, Northern Ireland and London claiming that they voted to remain. The referendum was not a regional one – it was a poll of the whole, combined, electorate of the United Kingdom. Any suggestion to the contrary should have been stated during the campaign and on the ballot paper.

I don’t like the result either, but why should specific regions suddenly claim attention just because the results in their area happened to end up bucking the trend? Hard luck Scotland, Northern Ireland and London (since when was London a separate entity??): the UK as a whole voted to leave. Deal with it!