Jack Reed, a year 13 student at Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys in Canterbury, reports ‘frustration, fear and foreboding’ for the generation that were denied a vote in the wonky referendum.
They announced last week that the word ‘brexit’ will appear in the next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. How will they define it?
Theresa May’s promise that ‘Brexit means Brexit’ won’t do for any dictionary.
Will the word be defined as Britain leaving the European Union or will it be one day defined as nothing more than a colloquial expression from an ultimately inconclusive advisory referendum about British membership of the EU?
Whatever they choose, it is unlikely to contain the elements of frustration, fear and foreboding that encapsulate the opinions of the younger political generation, the majority of whom voted to remain in the European Union.
Those aged sixteen and seventeen weren’t even granted the right to vote in this referendum, in contrast to the Scottish referendum where the voting age had been set at 16.
Yet many of the young people deemed too uneducated to vote were far more engaged with modern politics than older people.
The fact they have had their future dictated to them by an older generation has created huge levels of frustration.
They see Brexit as a voyage into the unknown with no safe haven on the chart.
Like the crew and passengers of the first and last voyage of the Titanic, Captains Johnson and Gove and their shipmates embarked on the morning of June 23 with huge waves of optimism.
Come the early morning of June 24 their project had started turning into reality. By a narrow 52-48 result, the United Kingdom would therefore leave the EU.
What very quickly unravelled was the litany of lies that the Leave campaign had spun to gain the votes of the British people.
The way the lower ranks of the working classes had blindly trusted the promises the upper classes reminded me of the class system that had been so rigidly enforced on the Titanic. Johnson and Gove, two arrogant former journalists had proved to be shameless liars and career-driven fantasists. It was little surprise that Captain Cameron walked off the bridge as soon as his ship hit the iceberg.
He claimed he was not the man to ‘steady the ship.’ In fact he had been the Bruce Ismay of the disastrous voyage, too arrogant to consider failure, too idle to examine the potential consequences of his referendum.
Cameron never imagined Leave would win; his promise of an EU referendum in his 2015 manifesto worked perfectly in giving the Conservatives a majority. But once he felt the huge political pressure for the referendum, and once he lost Boris Johnson to the Leave campaign, the cracks began to show. Cameron’s premiership was over before it had truly started and far too soon for his liking. Many young people now see Britain’s membership of the EU ending much too soon for their liking.
When all the lies were revealed and the fraudulent claims exposed on the morning after the result, there was a feeling of ‘I told you so’ among young people.
But we aren’t being listened to. The young – and those otherwise disenfranchised – have protested, but has anyone taken notice of our wishes? Will further protests be futile?
It seems the older generation will never listen to young people, especially on the subject of politics. Whether this is due to their own sense of superiority or whether they simply believe all young people are narrow minded, ignorant and stuck in front of Xbox consoles , makes no difference.
What astonishes many young people is how parliamentarians of all parties seem to be following Theresa May in blind obedience to the result of an advisory referendum when a huge majority of the members of both houses of parliament wanted the United Kingdom to remain in the EU.
The voyage of Titanic ended in a disaster because of the failures and mistakes of those in charge of the White Star Line.
it seems Parliament are going ahead with a decision that more and more people within and without the House of Commons do not want. Yet Parliament has the power to stop Britain leaving the EU. The MPs have held the ultimate power in England since 1689 and our ship hasn’t sunk yet.
The UK hit its first iceberg on June 23 but must now must avoid hitting a second iceberg. Out of the 650 members in the House of Commons, only around 200 of them wanted the UK to leave the EU and, once Friday morning came and the lies were exposed, thousands of ordinary voters who voted to Leave were now wishing they hadn’t. As barrister David Allen Green indicated in his blog, ‘it was a glorified opinion poll.’
We hit the iceberg and as we scrambled around for safety, the captain abandoned us. There was no plan.
The real question on the minds of most young people is what will happen next?
If Theresa May has her way, Brexit will go ahead and the UK will leave the EU most likely around the start of 2019. But is this the right decision? She, personally, voted to Remain so clearly doesn’t want it to happen. This sentiment is shared by most of her cabinet. So why is it happening? A desire to appear like they are listening to the public? An attempt to gain more votes at the next election? A belief that it is morally the right thing to do? It could be any or all of these reasons.
Again, it doesn’t really matter. The plan has now been set for Brexit to happen and what we now need is somebody to grab hold of the helm and steer us away from hitting another iceberg, the one known as Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.
Brexit isn’t something the young wanted. It isn’t something that most MPs wanted, but they have a weakness for short term fixes.
It seems to be the young people who are thinking long term about the impact of Brexit on Britain.
Refusing to trigger Article 50 would of course lead to a short term decline in popularity with the older generation.
But it would also lead to a huge surge in popularity from the younger generation along with the 16.8 million people who voted Remain.
David Cameron’s decision to stage a national referendum for party political advantage in a deeply divided nation state has created huge potential problems for our country. But what we must remember is that the MPs are still in control, they can still guide us in the right direction. We need them to stop glumly preparing the lifeboats for a second disaster. The young people know what must be done now.
Ring down ‘full astern’ on all four engines. Observe the drift of the second iceberg. Alter course. Radio all stations worldwide that the second iceberg will be avoided and that the original voyage is being maintained.
Tell the helmsman, in the calmest possible voice, ‘Steady as she goes’ and those lexicographers at Oxford might well be able to define Brexit as something that ‘never happened’.