Last week I received an email telling me there is a reason people “my age” don’t have opinion columns. It went on to describe my work as “inane” and, effectively, cringe-worthy.

Fair enough - that person, like me, is entitled to their opinion. Journalism would be a strange profession if disagreement was forbidden. But what struck me was not the insult itself, it was how familiar it felt.

Because this wasn’t an isolated incident - it was part of a pattern.

Young people who put their heads above the parapet - in journalism, politics, activism or public debate - are routinely dismissed, not on the strength of their arguments, but on the basis of their age.

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