Vince Cable on Brexit today

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 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.

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 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.

He's 74

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

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 (Probably because in the 1950s all our school atlases were getting out of date . )

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.

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.

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.

Not just unfair stereotyping: bloody rude.

And I voted Remain.

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.

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