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LONDON, Aug. 6-- Britain has been dominated for years by a so-called "north-south divide", but a leading politician opened up a new frontier Sunday, creating a "young-old" divide. Sir Vince Cable, the recently elected leader of the minority Liberal Democrat party, described British pensioners who backed Brexit of being "self-declared martyrs" accusing the old of comprehensively shafting the young. Cable cited figures showing that in last year's European Union referendum the vast majority of young people voted to remain in the bloc, but the majority older people backed leaving. Cable's comment, which appeared in an article he wrote in the Mail on Sunday newspaper, have provoked a war of words on social media sites, with many people attacking the 74-year old veteran politician who served as Business Secretary in the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government. Cable expressed a concern that the self-declared martyrs may be planning to sacrifice other people rather than themselves. He said: "It is striking that the martyrs appear predominantly elderly. This is unsurprising since 64 percent of over-65s voted Brexit in the referendum and 71 percent of under-25s voted Remain. "In the campaign, I was struck by the heavily remain sentiment in colleges and schools and the heavily Brexit mood of church-hall meetings packed with retired people. "The martyrdom of the old comes cheap, since few have jobs to lose. And even if the country were to become poorer, their living standards are largely protected by the 'triple lock' on the state pension and many can rely on occupational, final salary, pensions which are closed to younger people." | 
