LETTER: Young are not naive or gullible

He calls the young of the country ‘naïve’ and ‘gullible’ for voting for Jeremy Corbyn (and also assumes they all voted for Jezza).

This is typical of the patronising remarks I’ve heard from the ‘sore winners’ ever since the General Election about the young not being mature enough to make political decisions.

Apart from the fact that since the age of 16, some will have been taxed or been affected by education grants, could have been in the Forces or been affected by unemployment, they still have to wait until they reach the age of 18 to vote on these things which affect their lives.

Every June, some bitter old twit at the Daily Mail complains that exams are getting easier these days in order to devalue any sense of achievement that these kids have earned and now, when things haven’t turned into the blinkered ‘Mailtopia’ which the ‘right’ wing feel is theirs by right, they call them too naïve, gullible and inexperienced to exercise their right to vote despite the fact that many of these same people may have voted Leave last year!

What is naïve and gullible is thinking that hard Brexit is a popular choice.

The Leave vote won by a mere four per cent majority and even if let’s say, a few million (it’s a hell of a lot more than that) preferred a soft Brexit, that would mean that hard Brexit is the choice of the minority.

It is popular with a vociferous and misinformed minority including the ‘loudmouth in the pub’ and any person who foolishly believes it will mean every single foreigner will be forced to leave the country.

In fact, all of those people who reinforce the sweeping generalisation that ‘Leave voters are a bit thick!’

(Please read this sentence carefully before actually accusing me of saying what I put in the inverted commas).

Because these people are so noisy, they drown out the more reasonable voices of the millions of people who felt they were conned into voting Leave and now regret it – not all Leave voters granted, but a significant amount.

The youth of today have shown responsibility by coming out in large numbers to vote and change things.

They will have done European Studies at school, so will know about the real benefits (and drawbacks) of the European Union and not be outraged by mostly exaggerated stories about ‘straight bananas’ in the right wing press.

Instead of just going along with the political preferences of their parents or their tabloid of choice, nowadays young people will turn to ‘Isidewith’ or other political questionnaire sites on their computers and get a balanced and often surprising opinion on which party agrees with their stance the most plus percentages of how sympathetic the participant is to the policies of other parties.

So Mr Harris, I seriously question your opinion of who’s really naïve.

Dave Poole

Penhurst Close