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Brexit: How much of a generation gap

is there? - BBC News
By Jon Kelly BBC News Magazine

Image copyright Getty Images

Many young Remain supporters have been blaming older voters for
Brexit. But was there really a generational divide?
Remain supporter Elizabeth Mayfield, 19, looked on in despair as
the referendum results came in.
And she knew who she blamed - an older generation that she sees
as having secure jobs and gold-plated generous pensions, people

who had caused house prices to soar and plunged the country into
debt.
"I'm annoyed that baby boomers have messed things up for us
again," says Mayfield, a student at Staffordshire University.

"They've voted for something that's not going to really affect them.
They're not going to have to deal with the consequences."
It has been a common refrain on social media. Brexit would ruin "a
whole generation's future despite them voting against", said one
Tweeter. Another added: "Thank you baby boomers for the last nail
in my generation's coffin."
A screen grab of a comment on the Financial Times website was
widely shared. Young people's freedom of movement, it said, had
been snatched away from "a generation that was already drowning
in the debts of our predecessors".

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These resentments are familiar to most people who've attended a
multi-generational family meal in the past decade. But there is
evidence to suggest younger voters were vastly more likely to
support Remain than their parents and grandparents.
The polling industry's methods may have been widely called into
question since the 2015 general election. But successive polls
consistently found there was a relationship between age and
likelihood to support leaving the EU.
A survey by Lord Ashcroft of 12,369 referendum voters after they
had cast their ballot suggested that the older they were, the more
likely they were to have voted Leave.

Almost three quarters (73%) of 18 to 24-year-olds said they had

voted to stay in the EU, compared with 62% of 25 to 34s and 52% of

35 to 44s. Support for Brexit formed a majority among every other

age category and grew with each, peaking at 60% among those
aged 65 and over.
Similarly, comparing data from the 2011 Census with the
referendum results indicate a pattern, says Rob Ford, professor of
political science at the University of Manchester.
It's "pretty evident" that "places with lots of older voters voted for
Brexit while places with more younger voters voted Remain", he
says.

For this reason there was anger about the fact that 16 and 17 year
olds were denied a vote in the referendum, whereas Scots of the
same age were able to participate in 2014's vote on independence.
But there's a danger in generalising.

Other demographic factors have been at play, too. There was

evidence to suggest that class, level of education and previous
history of having voted UKIP were important, too. Areas with higher
rates of immigration were more likely to support Remain.
And though most 18 to 25 year olds backed Remain, many didn't.

Image caption James Hofstetter

James Hofstetter, 20, an engineering student at the University of

Central Lancashire, voted Leave, and says it's wrong to imply the
opinions of older people should count for less.
"Everybody's got one vote, and everybody's vote is equal," says
Hofstetter.
"These older people have grown up with the EU. They obviously
know what's going on." Many 2016 Leavers would have voted to

stay in the Common Market in 1975, but grown disillusioned with the
reality of European integration, he says, and their experience should
be acknowledged.
And it's not as though the young couldn't have done more to make
their voice heard.

There's evidence that areas with lots of younger voters tended to

have lower turnouts, says Ford. This was also true in the 2015
general election, when young voters were disproportionately likely to
have supported Labour, while older people were more likely to have

gone for the Conservatives.

The young might resent the old for dominating politics. The old
might retort that the young need to show up in greater numbers if
they want their views to be heard. The divide between the
generations looks set to continue.