Baby boomer ‘used as term of abuse since Brexit vote’

THE term ‘baby boomer’ has become a label of abuse in the wake of the Brexit referendum, experts claim.

Charity chiefs said those born between 1946 and 1964 face resentment for owning their own homes and benefiting from free university education.

And they warned that baby boomers are facing ageist attacks from Remainers for allegedly ‘stealing the future’ of the younger generation by voting Leave.

The concerns were raised by Age UK’s head of public policy Jane Vass and the former head of public affairs at Help the Aged, Kate Jopling.

Speaking at the The Future of Ageing conference in London yesterday, Mrs Vass said: ‘After Brexit, there was this demonisation of older people – in some cases [people said] “take away their votes”.’ Mrs Jopling added: ‘There was a casual use of demonising and divisive language – the bandying around of stereotypes about who older people are, about their economic circumstances, their motivations and even their ability to form rational judgments.

‘Baby boomers used to be talked about as the generation that were going to change everything, now it is almost a term of abuse.’

Baby boomers – the term given to those born in the population explosion after the Second World War – were widely blamed by the Left for Brexit after polls suggested over-65s were more than twice as likely as under- 25s to have voted Leave.

While almost three-quarters of 18 to 24-year-olds are thought to have voted Remain, YouGov reported that 60 per cent of 50 to 64-yearolds probably backed Leave.

Age UK was moved to publish a blog last year calling for an end to the ‘denigration’ of older people after Brexit was blamed in newspaper commentaries and on social media as the fault of the ‘elderly’, ‘baby boomers’ and ‘wrinkly b*******’.

Speaking after the conference, run by the International Longevity Centre, Mrs Vass said: ‘Older people stealing their children’s future was the standard wording.

‘But actually that was apparent well before Brexit, particularly around housing and wealth.

‘There has not been as much recognition that a lot of the inequalities in wealth are within generations as well as outside generations.’

She said many people now try to avoid calling the post-war generation ‘baby boomers’, adding: ‘It’s often used as a term of abuse.’

Policy consultant Mrs Jopling also condemned the tone of the discussion on voting trends. ‘It was more about the language, talking about older voters stealing our future, talking about should older people be allowed to vote,’ she said.

‘For me that was illustrative of how far we had gone with age discrimination, if that was acceptable to say.’ The issue of Brexit discrimination arose in a workshop called ‘Is the future more or less ageist?’

Chairman Sam Smethers, of the Fawcett Society, said older people were in fact extremely concerned with the future of their children and grandchildren when voting.

A report this month by Independent Age also found older people wanted public policy to be fair to all age groups and did not want the generations to be ‘played off against each other’.

‘Demonisation of older people’