Brexit is not my business

and I should not be commenting but I am concerned for my friends.
I don't think there is anyone I know who voted for Brexit to occur.
At the same time it does not surprise me that people did vote for it. It wasn't just all the slick advertising by some telling people how much better off they would be out of the EU - it was something more than that. 
I think there was always a feeling by some that the UK was never really welcome in the EU. When the UK didn't join the Euro currency that just heightened the feeling. There were always going to be issues with trying to restrict the number of people wanting to enter the UK. It was (and still is) seen as a desirable location by so many people.  
Of course the UK is geographically tiny. There are limits to the number of people it can physically contain and the actions it can take. What applies in a geographically much larger country like France or Germany will not always be able to be applied to the UK. But "the rules are the rules" Brussels kept saying. 
As I understand it the UK was putting more money into the EU than they were getting out of it...again, hardly surprising.  People were asking, "What are we really getting out of this?" The people doing the questioning were not the scientists, the academics, the financiers and the economists, the teachers and the nurses, and the people who keep the country running. They know what they are going to lose. The Brexiteers were the other people who simply didn't understand what Europe and belonging to Europe meant.
For that, Europe has to take some blame. Brussels has to take some blame. The fault, like most divorces, is not just on one side. It is on both sides. The EU is hedged around with a vast number of rules and regulations and the rules and regulations seem to keep growing. While they may not state how far a banana can bend some of them seem unnecessarily petty but they have been made at the demand of member states who, while they want the union, still want to retain certain rights over issues like the naming of cheese and wine. And not all EU countries are equal. Malta has a tiny population compared with Germany. Luxembourg is not much bigger, only saved perhaps by close proximity to important European neighbours. Greece is still in dire financial straits and Italy isn't far behind. Former Communist countries are still struggling with democracy and their finances. Some countries have joined the common currency and others haven't. Countries which will be a financial drain want to join the union. Others are threatening to leave. The Irish, understandably, don't want a customs border between the north and the republic. (Turn the north into a special customs region?)
And, for all the pronouncements of the likes of Donald Tusk and others, it is not all sweetness and light among those who are so fiercely defending the EU. There are problems. Perhaps if they had been addressed then Britain would want to stay.
Perhaps too we need to ask why the savvy Swiss have not joined the EU?