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26 March 2019updated 08 Sep 2021 9:44am

Why are baby boomers the most Eurosceptic generation?

It is not just that the war generation is positive towards integration, but that the two following generations are particularly hostile to it.

By Kieran Devine

The EU was set up in response to the horrors and destruction of the Second World War. In the wake of the Brexit referendum result, it was oft repeated that the older generations were more likely to have voted for Britain to leave the European Union.

This presents something of a puzzle. Why would older generations, likely to have experienced the impact of the war first-hand, seek to remove Britain from an institution that has helped maintain peace in Europe for more than seven decades? Might it be that putting all over 65s into one category, containing individuals several decades apart in age, conceals distinct generational differences among the group?

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