What does Brexit mean? It's a very difficult version, I think it changes daily.
And as someone has been following it quite closely, I don't know.
There's all like these technical big words, I have actually no idea what they mean.
I mean, I don't know what's going to happen and I don't think anybody does to be quite honest.
Hopefully it'll work out in the end.
Everything is explained through economic terms,
our GDP will fall by this much, our growth will fall by this much ...
You know, no one knows what that means for them.
I think the first time I heard about Brexit I was 15, so obviously way below the voting age.
I didn't really know what it meant and honestly I didn't really know what the EU was at the time either.
I just remember just Googling it because
that's how we find our best information right? Just Googling things.
Whether it's no deal, the prime minister's deal, whatever,
I think that it's a golden opportunity for Britain to take
and you'd be foolish not to be celebrating it.
No, I'm not worried about Brexit.
We'll have to buy more British food because other food will be more expensive,
which is better for our country.
We just need to get on with it!
I just feel like the whole situation is just limiting me as a person, like what I can do
and like where I can go.
If I look at all the MPs, I don't feel like I can identify with even one of them.
They just want, like, British people who represent them, but they wouldn't want us to be represented.
I know a lot of people who are scared and I'm certainly scared myself.
I would like us to stay in the EU. I would.
The reason you don't hear much from younger leave voters
is not necessarily because they don't exist, it's because, especially on campus,
there's a bit of a social stigma around it.
I mean, the 'B' word gets mentioned,
you say that you've supported leave and then suddenly next thing you know,
your entire university hall is up in arms against you.
But no, I think that there's a stereotype
that if you voted Brexit, you must be racially motivated,
you must be inward-looking, whereas I'd say that I'm probably a prime example
of how that's not true, I mean I'm a Czech,
I'm an internationally minded individual, and that's just something that we've got to deal with.
I mean, there's a stigma but it's not good enough for leave supporters
to just sit there and complain about it.
We actually have to just be relentless and get our voices heard.
We've mostly got to prove them wrong, to be honest.
I'm Indian by heritage but my family has come from Kenya and Madagascar.
Much of my family came to work and to help the infrastructure of the UK.
But you also see them saying: "The migrants are coming from Europe, they're not going to do anything,
they're stealing our benefits."
And it's like, well I know times have changed but have people's views
really changed that much to think that they have now forgotten
what it was like for them?
Brexit's not only uncovered this whole load of economic distrust,
but also this whole lack of like empathy towards other people.
It's very sad, not a nice thought.
My house was pretty split on Brexit.
It might seem like a massive monumental change to people in businesses
or writing in papers about, you know,
how it will affect our GDP or whatever.
But actually, when you're a van driver like my dad, it's just:
"How will this affect my everyday?"
So, he voted leave because to him, I think it meant something
that they should sit down and listen to us for once.
I don't think Brexit voters made a mistake at all, I just think that the political elite
threw out so much misinformation, our politicians have just thought:
"Oh we'll just say that and hope they believe it."
Well actually that's just not acceptable because that's not what democracy is about
like, democracy literally means people power,
not people blindly following what politicians tell them because there's literally no other option.
Like you listen to them or you don't.
How can anyone possibly make up their mind on this when the narrative was so driven by
frankly just awful politics.
Now, two and a half years on, we know what Brexit looks like.
At the time, we were sold something completely different
and I think now that we know what it looks like,
we need to put it back to the people and see if that's what they actually want.
I do think that that is the only way
out of this mess that we've managed to get ourselves in.
In an ideal world I would like,
remain to be on the ballot and Theresa May's deal,
because we know what both of those options look like.
We're very far away from the Westminster bubble,
and people are already feeling like they're not being listened to.
So, we have to be careful.
If we did have a people's vote
and the people voted for May's deal, then that's what would happen.
Because that's what the people want.
No, obviously that's not what I would like.
Young people just aren't represented
not only because we're not given the vote, but because we're more diverse than
we were, like, 30 years ago,
but yet politicians now, if you look at them,
they're just not very representative of what's currently
happening in the UK, like right now.
Like there's quite a lot of them that have gone to the same colleges, private colleges, Eton.
It's very repetitive and it's like, when is change going to happen?
Even if you look at this friendship group, we're all from different backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures.
We're quite privileged in that, really.
I just don't think it's as diverse as it should be.
Like, politics is a big scary place and people are deliberately shut out.
It's meant to seem like something that only old people care about because then
that's how people win elections, because then only older people go out and vote.
In parliament it's just so like "Ooh, yeah"
and everyone's yelling at each other and going "Ahh".
And that's all so childish and pathetic,
but actually the things that are happening there really affect us.
As a young person I do try to
keep myself excited for what's going to happen in the future.
At the moment, it's really hard to see anywhere past the next month.
I definitely am worried about the future, yeah.
I don't really want to think about it.
No, I don't understand what Brexit means.
Like, they're all sat around parliament talking about
what's going to change or what's not going to change ...
No, I don't know.
It's all a bit confusing, isn't it?
Instead of, you know, looking into the future like,
yeah, I want to be successful and I want to aim for the highest for myself,
you have to think, well, you're most likely going to be limited by your own government, basically.
There is still change to be had, change we made and now we are seeing that.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for example.
Figureheads like that who are sort of like,
spearheading the idea that young people can make change
and that we don't necessarily have to accept what we have at the moment
which clearly isn't working, as we've seen from Brexit.
I'd say, the political climate at the moment, makes me disappointed, nervous, but still hopeful
that there is still some way of getting through this.
It's really down to the individual to go out and be heard.
We are in a generation where we are all saying that we can go and change the world.
So go and do it, nothing is stopping you.
I think Brexit for me, it just screams a mess
and it's something that I don't think I'll quite understand
how it's going to affect me for at least, you know, another few years.
I think we are still in the process of finding out what it really means for the country.