Vince Cable on Brexit today

It is unfair. I know many young people who voted to leave, so it's not all down to nostalgic overv 65's.

Over 65s who voted Leave may have believed that it would lead to better lives for younger people - their children and grandchildren - rather than just being mistily nostalgic.

Many under 65s voted Leave in that belief, also.

Vince Cable should have a better grasp of the public mood.

Not just unfair stereotyping: bloody rude.

And I voted Remain.

Well he’s managed to upset both the over 65s and Leave voters in one fell swoop. And probably not helped either the Remain cause or the Lib Dems.

I’m a Remainer but I know there were many different and complex reasons for voting Leave.

I'm 77 and I can't remember the world being Imperial pink! I'm a remainer as are most of my senior citizen friends. The only 'leave' voter in my close family was 24 at the time of the referendum.
Much as I respect Vince's political views and economic nous, that stereotyping is unworthy of a man of his intelligence and integrity.

It's an indubitable fact that the older you were the more likely you were to vote Leave. Of course this doesn't mean that every person over 65 voted Leave, nor does it mean that every young person voted Remain; it's just more likely that they did, Also, tory voters were more likely to vote Leave than Labour voters. So if you put the two together, over 65 and vote tory then it's very likely that a certain amount of harking back to pre- EU days could be involved. In fact, I've had a number of Leave voting contemporaries tell me that we were fine before the EU and we'll be fine when we've left. It might not exactly be nostalgia for Empire but it's certainly not being forward looking and realistic about the modern world.

I do think it's time, though, that people in the public eye stopped saying things like this because it isn't at all helpful and, as mostlyharmless says, it just upsets lots of people who seem to take every similar pronouncement as a personal insult.

P.S I'm younger than you, annodomini but I can remember large parts of the world being pink. (Probably because in the 1950s all our school atlases were getting out of date . )

He's 74

the Jumping Cable bandwagon on
re-arrange in a sensible order.

I think Vince Cable is just a silly old man and one of the reasons I am thinking about renewing my party membership.

His comments are typical of how many politicians think and talk now. We keep hearing that 'the country' or 'the British people' voted for Brexit. Of those that voted, Brexit was ahead by barely 1.3 million votes out of a total vote of 33.3 million and a total electorate of over 46 million. It is a win but not a very convincing in and does not justify this great rounding up to 'the country' or 'the people'.

It is the same with the talk about older voters. yes, about two thirds voted leave but one third voted remain. Aleave vote is closely related to education levels and more regions in the north than south voted No, but they do not talk about that because it makes them feel uncomfortable, much easier to take the lazy way out and just blame older people.

I have always found Cable to have a very smug and irritating way about him. He didn't do a great job as Business Secretary when he received a lot of criticism for selling off Royal Mail at a huge undervalue.

The leavers won the vote but the remainers were very close behind. 48% of the UK is pretty unhappy about the result and the continuing confusion, which doesn't make for a united country. I voted remain, but fairly unenthusiastically, and seeing all the division it has caused, I wish Cameron had never promised a referendum. And, having said he would see the job through but instead sailing off into the sunset I think he's one of the most disreputable of all our prime ministers.

I found Vince Cable's comments ill-judged and patronising, not worthy of the man I heard speak locally before he became part of the coalition government.
It could be that the over sixty-fives who voted to leave the EU based their decision on their personal experience of forty years of membership.

Vince Cable is way out of order for this. I now dislike him very much. He is suggesting that we are racist, isn't he.
My reasons for wanting to leave the EU have nothing to do with colour of anyone's face.

I used to like Vince Cable but now I just think he's a silly man.

I don't think he is entirely wrong. On another forum I tried to work out why the leavers had voted leave - they tended just to be loud and rude. One man did answer and said that he had lived abroad for twenty years and when he came back this was not the country he remembered!

I also think he is right to highlight the difference in opinion between the young (under 50) and the older and old. There was a difference and the older and old, with their greater numbers, have influenced the future of the young. You cannot ignore that surely?

MaizeiD is it your opinion that Tory voters were more likely to vote leave or is that a fact? I just haven't heard that before but I don't usually do the political threads.

I think VC knew exactly what he was doing. I think there is a movement to reverse the decision and this is part of it. Imo he wants us all to come out and say he is wrong so that we all start talking about the decision again and add to the call for a rethink. I think there will be a lot more of this sort of thing as the year runs on and people become more and more aware of what Brexit will mean.

Agreed GG.

There are a lot of much sillier men and women out there for sure ...and a lot more dangerous.

GracesGran, If more young people had voted the decision would have been different. Over 40% of under 25s did not vote in the referendum against 20% of over 50s not voting.

The answer lay in young people's own hands and they just couldn't be bothered.

MaizeiD is it your opinion that Tory voters were more likely to vote leave or is that a fact? I just haven't heard that before but I don't usually do the political threads.

It's a fact, Nonnie*. It's based on analysis of the the votes after the EU referendum.

It has been widely reported ever since but I suppose if someone just voted and then took no further interest thy're not likely to have heard about it (I really am not trying to be snippy with that last statement; it's just true that lots of people haven't taken any further interest since the referendum)

As a staunch Remainer, I’m sure there is an element of truth in what Cable said. But it’s hardly fair to blame over 65s for the Brexit vote when millions of over 65s voted Remain and millions of younger people voted Leave.

There were many different reasons for people voting Leave and lack of reliable, consistent information and a disgraceful campaign of lies didn’t help.

The whole issue was far too complex for a simple yes/no referendum. People were asked to vote and voted using heart and instinct rather than a deep understanding of Trade deals! (Even now, Liam Fox in charge of Post-Brexit Trade deals doesn’t seem to understand Trade deals.)

The answer lay in young people's own hands and they just couldn't be bothered.

I think this is such an annoying statement.

Why couldn't the young be bothered (if that it is actually the case?) Is it because older generations (that's us) haven't managed to teach them the value of their vote or encouraged them to show any interest in politics?

I don't understand how anyone would know which party I vote for in any election and relate that to how I voted in the EU referendum. All sounds rather woolly to me. I'm not even convinced they are right about what older and younger voters did. I don't know anyone who has been asked these questions by a polling organisation and from what I read in this thread it sounds like most of us older people voted to remain. Sceptical me? Too right!

Although he hasn't put it tactfully, I think Vince Cable is a little bit right in what he said. You only have to see the unseemly fuss made by some tabloid newspapers about the 'return' of the blue British passport. Yes, I know that not all over 65's voted to leave and not all under 50's voted to remain, but whenever I watch QT there is someone in the audience, over 50, shouting about how 'we' managed before we were in the EU and 'we' will manage now, in fact there have been many posters on GN saying the kinds of things that Cable has been criticised for.

MaizieD, before the referendum there was all sorts of stuff going on encouraging young people to vote and lots of excited young people saying, this was their thing and they were going to vote. Immediately after the vote a lot of pundits were saying how disappointing it was for young people that the result had been leave when so many more of them had been out to vote. Followed by a hurried back peddling when it was realised that this wasn't true.

If young people want a say they must get out and use their vote and not just sit in the corner whining. I am getting fed up with these endless, endless, excuses why some young people keep cutting off their noses to spite their faces.