Dear John,

One of the many damaging things about Brexit was its massive impact on young people. The referendum (which the young largely voted against) deprived Britain’s youth of their ability to travel and study abroad, barricading off opportunities and making their home a smaller, less cosmopolitan place.

Successive Conservative governments – hardly ever a mouthpiece for the younger generations – have routinely left the massive impact on Britain’s youth out of the conversation. Even among those willing to have that discussion, concerns arise over whether the EU would actually be willing to entertain any new arrangement with a country as politically unstable as ours is today.

But now there are signs that the Brexit freeze can possibly be lifted. The European Commission today proposed opening new negotiations with the UK over youth mobility, giving young people a thread of hope. While the Council still needs to agree on the proposal, it’s a sign that there is a real chance of repairing the damage done by Brexit – if we ever get a UK government willing to enter negotiations in good faith.

Therein lies the real challenge. Even Labour now view Brexit largely as a “settled” matter. Despite the fact that 87% of young people want to rejoin the EU, and a majority (55%) of the general population say they’d vote to remain if the referendum was held today, we still seem to be locked into the political choices of seven years ago.

Navigating our post-Brexit relationship with Europe democratically will be no easy task, but it’s clear that our current government is simply not up to the job. To do it properly, we’re going to need a system that actually represents the public’s real feelings about Britain’s role in Europe. We’re going to need a real democracy.

In that sense, the only thing holding us back is ourselves. A real democracy that can collectively own the mistakes of the past and move forward is no impossibility in Britain. We know what we need to do to get there. We just have to make it happen.

All the best,

Matt Gallagher

Communications Officer,

Open Britain