Thanks for Making Oxford Great Again

Oxford, Britain — Gloom and disillusionment rippled across the Oxford University campus today, as students woke upwardly to not but their final exams, but to news that the British electorate voted to separate from the EU, that their prime number minister had resigned over the so-chosen "Brexit," and that their economic prospects were all of a sudden thrown into turmoil.

Standing outside a university café, subsequently a nighttime of celebration following her final exam, 19-yr-erstwhile medical educatee Evie Rothwell said she was feeling a sense of "betrayal" this morning time.

"A really of import decision was fabricated for u.s.a. by the older generation," she explained, noting that get out polls showed that 3-quarters of voters anile eighteen to 24 wanted to remain in the Eu. By dissimilarity, more than 60 percent of seniors anile 65+ voted to leave.

(Sarah Kliff/Vox)

"Essentially people much, much older than us — and who won't be around for the consequences — are giving u.s.a. a future nosotros don't want," added Jack Lennard, who just finished his undergraduate degree in archeology and anthropology.

The students see the vast job and travel prospects the Eu offered them suddenly drying up, and they described how they felt their worlds would go a lot smaller. Rothwell worried about her future medical licensure, and whether she'd be able to move around as freely as she had hoped.

The students too uniformly said they failed to encounter how leaving the Eu would make Britain great again.

"I don't think there'southward anything non-patriotic about the EU," said Mary Winn, a 19-twelvemonth-old studying English. "I recollect [being role of the European union] makes u.s. a stronger state."

Brexit: a cautionary tale for America?

Julia Belluz

Oxford University students dressed for their final exams. (Julia Belluz/Vocalism)

Aside from concern and defoliation nearly the time to come, the students were surprised that Brexit could be real — and had words of caution for America.

"I was then, and then sure information technology wouldn't happen," Rothwell said. "I was 100 percent sure." Walking through campus, Rothwell ran into a fellow student who admitted to being then wrapped up in exams that she didn't vote — and at present she'll have to live with a decision that tilted against her preference to remain.

Rothwell added: "Imagine a globe where Boris Johnson and Donald Trump are making the near important political decisions."

Johnson is London's onetime mayor, who helped lead the "Leave" campaign after seeing a political opportunity to capitalize on a disillusioned electorate. He, forth with UK Independence Political party leader Nigel Farage, promised a return to a truly peachy and costless Britain.

If all this sounds familiar for Americans, the students did not miss the parallels either. And they advised Americans who are concerned well-nigh Trump not to be complacent in the upcoming US ballot.

"In Oxford especially, there's this liberal atmosphere. You're surrounded by so many like-minded people you forget there's an outside world," said Winn. "But particularly in working-class communities, the Leave campaign was very popular. You practise forget that existence in an surroundings like this."

The words should ripple like a cautionary tale across the Atlantic, added Lennard.

"I have about 2,000 friends on Facebook — and all but three were voting 'Remain.' That tells you what kind of bubble you tin live in, and how you tin can delude yourself it's going to go one way and then it doesn't."

Lennard is, in particular, concerned nearly the rise of a fierce right-wing electorate in his state. "Just as Trump is coming to his rise in the The states, saying all these things about building a wall, politicians here have been saying similar things. And we all thought — 'You can't say that, that won't appeal to British voters.' But clearly it did."

Correction: Lennard misstated the number of friends on his Facebook account.

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Source: https://www.vox.com/2016/6/24/12023548/brexit-youth-voters-wanted-britain-remain

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