Letter: Referendum - Voter turnout goes up with age
Re: 'Young people hit out at '˜betrayal of our future'. (Letters, July 7) '
Mr J Mills’ comments are naïve. To say that the EU promotes world peace carries little weight when one recalls the Bosnian war, resolved only by NATO airstrikes.
It is interesting to note that even the late Jo Cox’ constituency voted 55 per cent in favour of leave. Brexit was also strongest in those areas most economically dependent on the EU - perhaps the writer would do well to ask himself why this should be?
It contributes nothing to the debate to claim that three-quarters of those under 25 wanted to remain. As Neville Chamberlain found to his cost, wanting something will not necessarily make it so.
Had the under 25s “wanted” it enough, perhaps they should have voted in greater numbers.
Voter turnout increases with age, probably because older people value their right to vote and the responsibility which it brings. Older voters also have a longer perspective and will have “lived the changes” to the Common Market and seen the threats to sovereignty engendered by an increasingly federalist EU.
Oliver Davies
Leeds Road,
Harrogate