Since the 2016 E.U referendum of whether the U.K should remain in the European Union or not, the U.K has seen a clear between people who voted remain and those who voted to leave. Tensions have been high, particularly between the different generations in the U.K. Voting statistics have shown a correlation between age and political engagement. People aged over 65 were more than twice as likely as 18-25 year olds to have voted to Leave the European Union. 71% of under 25 year olds voted remain, whereas 64% of over 65 year olds voted to leave. These statistics show that the voting results were almost the exact opposite for the different age groups.
However, since the results of the 2016 E.U referendum, polls have shown that young people have been ‘energised by Brexit’ and the resentment that they feel towards the result (Sloam and Ehsan, 2017, p.11) Research has shown that this has resulted in increased support for the Labour party from young people. Results have shown increased engagement in politics by 18-24 years olds since the E.U referendum, for example:
- 18–24 year olds were as certain to vote as 25–34 year olds and 35–44-year-olds as well as 81% said that they were following the upcoming general election closely and lastly 88% of 18-24-year-olds said that they were closely following the negotiations relation to the U.Ks departure from the E.U
- Perhaps some young people are informing themselves on politics & will get involved later (Erik Amna 2014)
71.8% of people eligible to vote, voted in the E.U referendum with the outcome being 51.9% for leave to 48.1% for remain.
Our generation will now be the one to ‘inherit post-Brexit’ society and will have to live and deal with the consequences of the E.U referendum. This is why it is crucially important for young people to be engaged in todays politics, as these are problems that we are going have to face.
Historically, people aged 18-24 have the lowest turnout when it comes to voting in elections. During the E.U referendum, only 64% of people aged between 18-24 voted, and not all of them voted to remain. Whereas, 90% of over 65-year-olds voted. If a higher percentage of young people were politically engaged, it is very likely that the E.U referendum would have had a very different outcome. However, the majority of the people protesting against Brexit and posting about it on social media are people aged between 18 and 24 which I’ve always found pretty ironic whenever I have come across debates and anti-Brexit campaigns by young people. Can you really bash Brexit if you didn’t even vote?
Fig. 1- Graph showing Brexit results by age. Graph provided by BBC
Although people from my generation, historically have the lowest outcome when it comes to voting, we are the most active when it comes to political campaigns and signing petitions. Can be this classified as political engagement, even if not everyone between the ages of 18-24 takes part in voting in elections?
However, since the results of the E.U referendum 2016, political engagement from young people has seemed to have risen. The general election in 2017, which showed the Conservative Party lose the majority of the vote, this was thanks to the 18-24-year-olds whos votes had finally made a significant difference in an election. As having voted myself in both the E.U referendum and the 2017 general election, I was very happy to see a much higher turnout of voters from my generation including my friends and classmates from university. Having Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour party come visit and speak at my university, definitely sparked greater political interest and perhaps engagement from the students at my university.
It can be argued that the content now shared by young people on social media since the announcement of the E.U referendum in 2015 has changed drastically. It has gone from nominating your friends to do challenges such as the Ice Bucket Challenge, whereas now you can barely scroll through your Facebook feed without seeing intense political debates between young people.
The day following the E.U referendum, Huffington Post published an article called ‘Screwed by Older Generations’ (Ridley, 2016) Polls taken after the referendum showed an ‘age gradient in terms of the percentage of people within each age group who supported Leave or Remain, with support for Leave increasing as age increased and vice-versa’. When asked what their main priority is when negotiating a Brexit deal, the issue young people were most concerned with was the economy and were ‘significantly less concerned about either immigration or national sovereignty’ than the older generations. These results show that young people seem to be more interested and involved in politics than people may think and that younger people are more in favour of a ‘soft’ Brexit which minimises the harm that economic forecasts suggest Britain’s economy would suffer from a “hard” Brexit. (Kingman, 2017)
Overall, I believe that the stereotype of young people being uninterested in political matters is wrong. Evidence has shown despite 18-24-year-olds having the lowest voting rates, they are in fact the most active with regards to trying to get their voices heard and political campaigning. I will leave you with a video about young people and Brexit, and if people are really listening to their voices.
Bibliography:
Hunt, A. and Wheeler, B. (2019). Brexit: All you need to know. [online] BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32810887 [Accessed 17 Feb. 2019].
Kelly, J. (2016). How much of a generation gap is there?. [online] BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-36619342 [Accessed 17 Feb. 2019].
Kingman, D. (2017). Why did Millennials favour Remain?. Generation Remain: Understanding the Millenial Vote.
Moore, P. (2016). How Britain Voted | YouGov. [online] Yougov.co.uk. Available at: https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2016/06/27/how-britain-voted [Accessed 17 Feb. 2019].
Sloam, J. and Ehsan, M. (2017). Youth Quake: Young People and the 2017 General Election. [online] Available at: http://www.if.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Youth-Quake_Final.pdf [Accessed 17 Feb. 2019].
Spratt, V. (2018). The truth about young people and Brexit – BBC Three. [online] BBC Three. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/b8d097b0-3ad4-4dd9-aa25-af6374292de0 [Accessed 18 Feb. 2019].
Really interesting blog highlighting the inequalities between young people and older people when it comes to voting. It’s really interesting that you’ve mentioned that even though young people were highly engaged with anti-Brexit protests and campaigns, you’ve also noted that the turnout for the EU referendum of young people was still low. It would be useful if you could go into more detail as to what the solution could be to get young people to not only involve with protests and campaigns but also get them to the polling stations, as that’s how they can make the most difference.
The inclusion of young people being energised after Brexit is an excellent point and one well made. The whole blog makes an excellent argument and I would be interested to see how you would develop it more if you were to follow-up this blog.