After Brexit: a great time to be young

According to a new survey carried out by a UK youth charity, nearly half of young Londoners are depressed about their future post-Brexit. The Jack Petchey Foundation claims that 44 per cent of 11- to 17-year-olds living in London feel ‘fairly negative’ or ‘very negative’ about their prospects following the referendum.

The survey – produced by a foundation whose motto is, ‘If you think you can, you can’ – is yet another attempt to do down Brexit and the opportunities it presents us with. Also, given that it looked only at London, a Remain stronghold, it is also pretty skewed. What about the teens of Great Yarmouth? Or Sunderland? Or East Lindsey? What about those who don’t live on leafy roads in London boroughs?

Not only does this survey demonstrate exactly why so many voted for Brexit (they were sick of politics being dominated by the privileged few), it also reflects a broader failure to recognise the empowering possibilities that Brexit offers ordinary people – that, after shaking off the EU and its backers, we will all be able to play a role in shaping politics.

This is an opportunity that young Londoners are literally running away from. Apparently, 45 per cent of the survey’s respondents are considering leaving the UK at some point in the future – all because of Brexit. Things like this make those ‘Stronger Together’ signs, proudly displayed at pro-EU marches, look painfully ironic.

In the end, the only survey that mattered took place on 23 June. British youngsters should be jumping at the chance to shape the future of politics, not crying into their pillows and plotting to run away from home.

Izzy Lyons is a writer and a campaigner for spiked’s Invoke Article 50 NOW! campaign.