Don’t mock young people for caring about their future
Generation 75 per cent
The results of the Brexit vote announced in the early hours of Friday morning came as a shock to the European as well as the international community. With polls predicting a remain majority, hearts sank when the results declared we’d decided to leave the EU, particularly amongst the young.
Naturally, many young people took to social media to voice their anger and upset towards the 51.9 per cent that had thrown the chess pieces of their future into the air. An overwhelming 75 per cent of young people between the ages of 18 -25 voted to remain in the EU, however their voices went unheard whilst the xenophobic rhetoric that drove many to vote leave became prominent in the political sphere.
However, many who voiced their concerns for the future found themselves faced with comments such as, “Stop whining” and “everyone on my timeline suddenly cares about politics”.
And why shouldn’t they? We’ve been denied free movement through Europe, a position in one of biggest single markets in the world and the security the EU can provide. Many young people now face the prospect of even more uncertainty after graduation and most certainly unemployment. A vote that was seen as democratic and fair has violently cast out the young demographic and ignored our voices on a piece of legislation that, if passed, we will live with for the longest. Universities will have changes made to their funding that could potentially raise tuition fees, leaving us with more debt. If that isn’t enough to worry about, the pound plummeted to record lows not seen since 1985, with little growth since the results were announced, causing markets across the world to crash and financial worries we weren’t expecting to have to deal with. All of this for a result we didn’t choose.