Why on the 24th June am I sent messages saying “Shall we beat him up” and “He is a fat nosed c***”? Because I support Brexit.

75% of under 25s voted remain; that is the most europhilic of any demographic. Compare that with over 65s, who voted 61% to leave. Why did today’s smartphone generation overwhelmingly vote for the dull status quo and the elderly vote for real change and rebel against the establishment?

The extraordinary doesn’t stop there, as I sit writing this blog my two grandparents sit by me, both of whom voted remain with strong conviction, whilst I spent hours handing out leaflets for Vote Leave. An anomalous family, in anomalous times.

The abuse I felt on the 24th June was a mixture of naïvety (one peer even claimed I was responsible for closing down Nandos due to my euroscpeticism, a nonsensical story spouted by the likes of Buzzfeed and The Lad Bible), propaganda and tension.

Of that list, the first two go together: Naivety and propaganda are the best mix since porridge and raisins, for those boring bureaucrats in Brussels, whose goal is to indoctrinate the youth of today. Universities across the UK and Europe receive millions of so-called ‘EU money’ (aka British tax payers cash), thus during the referendum universities lobby for us to stay in, but they go further; professors teach students to love the EU. Welcome to propaganda Britain… That’s not the start of it literally, as a recent school leaver myself I have experienced first hand teaching of EU ‘facts’ in the classroom.

History, media studies, religious studies are but three subjects in which I, along with hundreds of other class mates have been taught that “UKIP are like the Nazis in the 1930s”, that “it would be mad to vote to leave, just look at what the CBI says..” and as a senior member of staff told me “we need to promote European values as European citizens”. As head of the British Values committee, this obviously did not go down well with me, we debated the European Union for a further half an hour, it became clear to me that this teacher was set on spreading EU propaganda. Is it any wonder my peers were so resolutely pro-European Union, after years of being told by so-called pillars of knowledge, in our teachers, that it is fact the EU is a good thing? Morally this is unacceptable. Every time this kind of ‘opin-fact‘ was distributed from our left leaning socialist civil servant masters, my hand would shoot up in protest, not only aggravating the teacher whose lies were being rejected, but also challenging my peers views on politics.

That’s fine then, you’re debating their propaganda, you say. Britain’s dilemma is that there isn’t enough young people doing this, with hundreds of schools being allowed to carry on being safe havens for liberal hogwash. This hurts everyone. We are growing generation brainwash, enticed on mobile devices with free data roaming, but only if you vote remain of course…

My third argument as to why adolescents are such remainiacs is tension. BBC, ITV, C4 and all the other left-wing media acronyms spouted for months leading up the historic vote that voting leave meant you were racist, because you wanted the sensible, vital notion of control over one’s borders. Being a progressive youth movement, any association with the evil Lord Nigel or toxic Boris, was ‘uncool’. Remain was the obvious choice, that is if you’re a gullible, susceptible, modern iPhone user. It was widely known I was a leave supporter (regular Facebook posts of me grinning, with a tee-shirt shouting “Vote Leave, take back control!” kept people updated, and annoyed) , therefore I was bunched in with those “nasty racists” who fought the leave campaign, ipso facto “we should beat him up” messages.

Yet for me, a 16-year-old political activist who lowered the average age of the vote leave stand on the high street by half, voting to leave was absolutely the right thing to do, not only for Britain but for the future of Britain: my generation. George Osborne threatened house prices would collapse, yet this ‘threat’ was to me a gift, and to millions of today’s youth who cannot afford to buy a home. Migratory levels into the UK are the highest they have ever been, by regaining control of our borders we can decrease demand for houses and public services, allowing for the Government to build more homes and invest in infrastructure meaningfully.

I can’t vote. Yet decisions made by our elected representatives have and will have colossus consequences for me.

Those who are above 18 have this ultimate power and opportunity, a responsibility so great it literally affects everyone’s lives, yet everyone of every age cannot vote. The EU makes 60% of our laws, we can’t vote, or even name those faceless bureaucrats in a far away city making decisions which affect all of us, all the time. From the price of fuel, to the type of vacuüm cleaner you can buy, to tax on the “luxury” tampons.

Even when the EU does allow referendums they ignore the result if “wrong” , and this is what the referendum is about, not free roaming charges or interrailing, but the ancient word: sovereignty. And like many old things, this word means a lot, and for many young people it’s hard to understand why – “It’s old-fashioned, outdated and doesn’t mean anything” one peer said during a debate. Frankly I don’t care if democracy is in fashion, but it certainly isn’t outdated and it means everything.