The future of Britain has been decided by its oldest citizens against the will of its youth. Now, the “Leave” camp that pushed the United Kingdom to break from the European Union is reaching out to the young to sell them on the outcome.
On Friday, Boris Johnson, the former mayor of London and a prominent spokesman for the Leave campaign, expressed hope for future generations, despite their aversion to leaving the EU.
“This question is about the people. It’s about the right of the people in this country to settle their own destiny. It’s about the very principles of our democracy,” Johnson said.
He framed the vote in terms of the British wanting independence. The British wanted “to take back control from a European Union that has become too remote, too opaque, and not accountable enough to the people it is meant to serve,” he said.
For British millennials, that means they have better opportunities. Johnson doesn’t envision an EU-free UK as “pulling up a drawbridge or any kind of isolationism.”
“We cannot turn our backs on Europe. We are part of Europe. Our children and our grandchildren will continue to have a wonderful future as Europeans,” he said. “There is simply no need in the 21st century to be part of a federal system of government based in Brussels that is imitated no where else on earth. It was a noble idea for its time — it is no longer right for this country.”
The older a British voter was, the more likely they embraced Brexit.
Lord Ashcroft Polls, headed by a former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, found that “nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of 18- to 24-year-olds voted to remain, falling under two-thirds (62 percent) among 35-44s.”
The youth were dragged along by their grandparents: 60 percent of voters 65 years or older voted to leave.
Leave voters were swayed by reclaiming sovereignty, immigration, and a lack of voice in EU decision. Remain voters saw Brexit as economically risky and a threat that could isolate the UK.
Johnson saw those concerns as wrong-headed.
“It is the essence of our case that young people in this country can look forward to a more secure and more prosperous future if we take back the democratic control that is the foundation of our economic prosperity. I believe we now have a glorious opportunity,” he said.
He’ll have to do more to comfort British millennials. A widely shared reader comment from the Financial Times captured the sentiments of many Remain voters:
The younger generation has lost the right to live and work in 27 other countries. We will never know the full extent of the lost opportunities, friendships, marriages, and experiences we will be denied. Freedom of movement was taken away by our parents, uncles, and grandparents.
The generational political divide isn’t new. The Pew Research Center has found an age divergence on “global engagements” and how the British view the role of the United Kingdom. The British has been less engaged in the EU and international cooperation than their continental counterparts, but EU integration has given British youth advantages that older British voters haven’t seen.
The youth don’t want more barriers to traveling and working in Europe. They’ve created bonds that might have weakened their British identity in favor of a pan-European one, but they feel less threatened by immigration or EU regulations.
Boris Johnson has promised that Brexit will have the UK “continuing to interact with the peoples of other countries in a way that is open, and friendly, and outward looking.”
For now, British youth are as skeptical of that assurance as Johnson is of the EU.
