"The idea that the UK will be better connected to the outside world after Brexit is mendacious bollocks" hardly in the spirit of this thread BUT - a couple of irrefutable observations with regard to the UK's connections with the outside world:

1. Commonwealth of Nations, second largest international body after the United Nations - the UK is the founding member of this organisation which links the UK to a market of 2,418,964,000 people in 53 countries.

2. For the last nine, yes that is right NINE, years the UK has traded more with the rest of the world than it has within the EU. That trend is ongoing and increasing. There is little that we have "traditionally" bought from the EU that we cannot find from elsewhere in the world.

3. The UK's deficit trading pattern with the EU is such that if we remain in it the UK gets poorer and poorer and Germany gets richer each year. With full implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon, our annual rebate disappears, as does our veto, our contributions also increase and we have to adopt the Euro as our currency. So far 31 companies have been enticed out of the UK by the EU with EU loans and grants that the UK contributes to [We are one of the five members of the EU that back the ECB]. They have moved to countries in Eastern Europe or to countries outside the EU altogether - So in the EU the UK pays to ship UK jobs abroad. If we leave then maybe they'll have to relocate German and French companies instead.

As far as the case of Elizabeth Ford goes, she was granted Leave To Remain by the Home Office, if that was issued in error due to a Home Office mistake then her case against them is watertight and I guess the Guardian and the person who wrote the article knows that full well. Had this been a UK citizen in the USA, his, or her, feet would not have touched the ground. They are much harsher on visa infringements than the UK are [Same thing applies with regard to Canada and Australia if memory serves].