Brexit — Blame it on complacency + lies
The young didn’t vote while those angry at politicians decided to vent their anger: both groups will be worse off for it
It seems that although 75% of young people voted for the United Kingdom to remain in the UK only about 36% of those aged between 18–24 years actually bothered to vote. There are more than 7 million young people in that category: what were the 5 million or so people who would clearly benefit from European Union membership doing on 23 June?
Even discounting for the number who had failed to register, there would have been more than enough Remain crosses to swing the vote that way. Apathy can be an excuse if you feel no one will listen to you; direct democracy provides each and every voter with a bullhorn. The older generations shouted loudest.
Perhaps it the referendum had been an on-line petition things would have turned out differently. Already a petition for a re-referendum is gathering pace and will pass 3.2 million by the time anyone reads this.
But I fear it is too late. It is hard to imagine we will get a second chance. The Liberal Democrat party — which was in coaltion with the Conservatives but plummeted to just eight seats in the Parliament in the last election — has promised to campaign on leading the UK back into the EU. But it is unclear when there will be a new general election and unclear the Lib Dems can regain their credibility (though as a Lib Dem I would work hard for them to do that).
We have to face it: the UK is a leaderless country. Who would trust the Brexiters who lied so boldly? Would would trust Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn, who campaigned so half-heartedly? Only Nicola Sturgeon of the Scottish National Party looks like a leader today; she now has a good reason to replay her bid for Scottish independence as the majority of Scots voted Remain.
And even if there are several million protest voters who would change their crosses now that they know they were lied to, the catalyst for catastrophe has kicked in. (Perhaps we can even count Boris Johnson, the Brexiters poster boy in that protest vote crowd given his reticence to embrace victory and the Leave camp’s hasty back peddling on populist promises.) For now Scotland will go for its independence referendum, the pound will continue to flounder, business will put a hold on investment and jobs will be lost in the UK. Tax receipts will go down. The NHS and all other public services from education to infrastructure will suffer.
The net cost of being part of the European Union will seem like a bargain as we dip into recession. Oh, young voters, what have you done to yourselves? Your future was in your hands and you weren’t paying attention. You’ll have to work even harder to get yourselves back to where you used to think you were going or could go. The desire to build walls isn’t just Donald Trump’s crazy idea.
