rah

For a start it means that the structure of the government better reflects the concerns of the population. The EU never really made much of a dent in the consciousness of Britons. I expect the number of citizens who knew the name of their MEP off the top of their head would be dwarfed by the number of citizens who knew the name of their MP. This is in comparison to continental countries, particularly in my mind Germany, where the EU, EU political parties and MEPs are very much present in the minds of the electorate. At least, that was my experience.

Also, in my view the EU is quite undemocratic. The separate Council, Commission and Parliament are an affront. Especially the fact that the Parliament, which represents the electorate, does not have the power to introduce legislation. The people are an inconvenient afterthought in the EU power structure. I'm afraid I can't find a link right this second but somewhere I have a copy of an interview with Yanis Varoufakis when he was finance minister for Greece back when they had their economic meltdown where he says that he was told by others around the halls of EU power that "the people" should not be given the power to decide economic policy. That, to me, is the EU. The British people are better off out of it.

EU Regional Development Funds are another horror. They're run by unelected bureaucrats, stepping on the toes of existing, democratically elected regional institutions like.. councils. Instead of giving hundreds of millions to councils for development projects, or even creating larger regional institutions with democratically elected leadership, someone thought it would be a good idea to give those millions to unelected bureaucrats to spend in the same area. I'm still mystified as to how this ever came to pass. Brexit couldn't come soon enough.

Edit: Found the interview. Here's the full quote from Varoufakis, talking about the impending referendum on whether to accept European proposals regarding Greece's debt: [in the event that the referendum accepts the European proposals] "I am not going to impede its progress through parliament. This is my commitment to democracy and my commitment to the people, that I have entrusted with the decision, with the verdict of yes/no, or no, in a way that has incensed my colleagues in the Euro group who don't believe that 'such complex matters', as I've been told, 'should be put to common folk'." -- https://youtu.be/OmqnYHmRg48?t=625

They're no longer citizens of a nation state which is a member of the EU.

Everyone in the UK did.