My Generation Is the Boomers - So Please Don't Blame Us for Brexit

Not everyone past age 60 is selfish and focused entirely on self-interest - the ones who are selfish at 80 were probably selfish at 40 and the ones who are altruistic at 40 will probably still be altruistic at 80. As a boomer, I am as hacked off at Brexit as the average 40-year-old.
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If, like the co-founders of SoSensational (that's me, Jan Shure and Cyndy Lessing) you are a Baby-boomer (or just a "Boomer" in American parlance) you are probably totally fed up with being blamed for Brexit, Britain's imminent (or not so imminent, depending on who you listen to) exit from the EU following Thursday's Referendum.

We, that is the Boomers (who, by definition, were born between 1945 and 1952) are being lumped in with everyone in the UK aged over 60 and blamed for voting for Britain's exit.

The statistics reveal that generally Boomers voted the same way as the under-40s. But columnists, commentators and politicians who should know better (but hey-ho why let the facts get in the way of a good column/comment), are putting us all in to the same "old" category and I am not happy!

The latest columnist/commentator to lump together everyone aged 60 or over, was Giles Coren in Saturday's Times. Now, I should first of all own up to knowing Giles very slightly (our journalistic paths crossed when he had a spot of bother with the Polish authorities over a rather anti-Polish rant relating to his grandfather and the Poles' treatment of Jews; at the time I was an editor at the Jewish Chronicle fact-checking the report, and we had a number of conversations).

I should also confess to really liking Giles's writing. I am a devoted fan of his column and reviews. (That is, his newspaper columns lest it be misinterpreted).

But, I did not appreciate my generation being conflated with the generation of those now in their 80s and 90s; they were a whole generation older than me - effectively my parents' generation. And Giles, that generation did fight in the War and make sacrifices, contrary to your assertion otherwise, though my generation of Boomers did not!

Giles very sweetly cited his mother as having gone against her conscience to vote "in" in the interests of her children and grandchildren. I, too, know a number of "older" people who did the same in the interests of their children and grandchildren.

Not everyone past age 60 is selfish and focused entirely on self-interest - the ones who are selfish at 80 were probably selfish at 40 and the ones who are altruistic at 40 will probably still be altruistic at 80.

As a boomer, I am as hacked off at Brexit as the average 40-year-old.

But even more hacked off at being categorised with the xenophobes who voted for it!