An interesting generation gap exists in terms of Euroscepticism. To our parents generation, Europe was exotic and exciting. I recently found an old travel brochure from the 1970s, promising that a trip to Spain would be “The holiday of a lifetime”. Nowadays, no travel agent could call a trip to Spain the holiday of a lifetime with a straight face. Europe now is not viewed as the exotic place it once was. Younger people have never viewed it as especially exotic. But the older generation did, and many of them still do.

When I started university, many classmates shared stories of how they had spent their gaps years: teaching English in Kenya, backpacking across America and working in a bar in Thailand amongst the ones I remember clearest. One of my friends was nearly killed by the Bali bomb during his gap year travelling. No one mentioned Europe. Given a choice, our young people just don’t get excited by it. Given a choice between a holiday in Europe, and a holiday further afield, the young choose further afield. Our choice of emigration also shows this trend. The five countries where most British emigrants end up are Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France and Spain. The British emigrants who go to France and Spain are almost all retirees, whilst the emigrants who end up further afield are almost all young graduates.

So, what point am I making here? The point is, young people don’t find Europe even vaguely exciting or attractive. The older generation view it as they viewed it in their youth, mainly that it is the latest thing. The problem is it is this older generation which is now in charge of our country. The fifty and sixty somethings who are now government ministers still have the view of Europe they had in their youth, when Spain was the holiday of a lifetime. If Europe is still viewed by them as the latest thing, is it any wonder they are so emotionally invested in the EU? If Europe is the hip, trendy place they were taught in their youth, we must be as closely attached as possible to it now.

To them, Europe is the most exciting and trendy place ever. In 1970 something, when our leaders where in their formative years, it probably was. It is no coincidence that we joined the EU at a time Europe was seen as the future, during the 70s. The empire was gone, and there were no emerging economic powerhouses. India was a desperately poor third world country, and China was in the grip of a Stalinist ruling class, with sluggish growth. Europe was the only way to go in the 1970s. How things change. To my generation, the word China does not conjure up men in tunics carrying red books, it conjures up images of the dazzling lights of Shanghai

The website generational dynamics records an interesting trend: in the 2005 French votes on the European Constitution, the older you were, the more likely you were to vote Yes. Conversely, the younger you were, the more likely you were to vote No.  It would appear that it is not just British young people who have discovered that the world doesn’t start and end in Europe. The Europhile’s desperate cries of “There is no alternative to Europe!” obviously fell on deaf ears, when directed at young people who knew all to well that there most certainly is.

We can thus explain two things – our leaders obsession with Europe, and our young people’s disinterest in it. This means that we must focus our recruitment on the younger generation, who do not have the emotional attachment to the EU some older people have. We need to get out of Europe and back into the world.