Half of young people say they would never take up arms for the UK and only 38% say they would do so “under some circumstances”, a poll has found. The Telegraph has more.
Asked whether they would be willing to go to war for Britain, 50% of those aged 16 to 29 said that “under no circumstances” would they go to war.
Only 38% said they would do so “under some circumstances”, while the rest did not know.
It is the latest survey to suggest that Gen Z is much less patriotic than older generations, and exposes the generational divide over questions of identity and national pride.
The poll of 2,000 people aged from 16 to 29, commissioned by the John Smith Centre at Glasgow University, found that the number expecting their lives to be better than their parents’ had halved in a year – from 63% to just 36%.
Only 25% said they felt the political system treated them fairly.
Eddie Barnes, the Director of the John Smith Centre, said younger people were unwilling to fight for a country that was not fighting for them.
“The idea that the next generation will have it better than previous ones has been a founding belief for decades,” he said.
“Today’s poll shows that the majority of this generation of young people no longer believe it to be true. And it reveals their loss of belief is collapsing at speed.
“Locked out of the housing market, pinned down by low wages, loaded by student debt, and increasingly worried about the rise in AI, young people today feel a growing sense of unfairness about the world around them.
He added: “In those circumstances, it should be little surprise that 50% say they wouldn’t fight for the country under any circumstances. Or as many young people might put it: why fight for a country that isn’t fighting for you?”
In the poll, young people ranked financial concerns, job insecurity and housing instability as their top-three worries.
They ranked better wages, affordable housing and more career opportunities as the top three things that would make them happier.
Worth reading in full.
It’s a shame the poll didn’t appear to ask why they weren’t willing to fight, rather than just assuming that their “worries” were the reason.
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And what do the young people think of England’s National Day today, April 23rd?
Here’s an uplifting post from MP Rupert Lowe:
Rupert Lowe MP on X: “I am proud to be English – always have been, always will be. On St George’s Day, and every other day. Never let anyone tell you that pride in our England is shameful, or something to hide. It is most definitely not. It is noble. It is natural. It is necessary. Our compass and https://t.co/Yubx8AQpNB” / X
And even fewer would fight for the EU.
I’m struggling to see the incentive to go and get blown to bits by a drone.
For the indigenous Brits it’s not as though ‘your’ ancestral homeland is looking much worth the effort nowadays, and if do you survive some overseas sh*tfest you can look forward to a Hemerized legal pursuit as relentless as an explosive drone.
The folk cheering you on to sign up will either be Uniparty politicians looking for an overseas distraction to deflect from their UK mismanagements, or the Boomers – who are disinclined to relax their grip on triple-locked entitlements’, excruciatingly costly late life health NHS ‘entitlements’, or inflated property assets – to, you know, maybe help give you half-chance at a decent (? American) standard of living.
As far as joining a military organisation goes, the best choice would be the American one – as a friend of mine’s has. They don’t tend to prosecute their soldiers.
It would be interesting to canvass those in an older demographic, who remember what the country was like, say, in the 70s and see what they say about defending the country today?
I don’t imagine many of them would be champing at the bit to sign up either… 🤷🏼
Excellent point.
“Only 25% said they felt the political system treated them fairly.”
What are they expecting? Hand outs, congratulations and affirmations directed at them and written into law?
Years of mismanagement has rigged the deck and changed their prospects considerably. Many of them have also been taught to hate this country.
If this is the case this result is intentional. The Marxists and Islamists will consider this an important indicator that all their propaganda is working.
Absolutely! And nowhere is the success of that Muslim-Marxist Alliance Propaganda more evident than today, when whole towns are afraid to display England’s National Flag on England’s National Day!
One local devout, hardworking Christian father of two young girls was proud to fly his England Flag from a flagpole in their garden every day, until his wife and daughters pressured him not to, because the wife (whom he adores) was sneered at by neighbours and friends, and his daughters were brainwashed by their Evil Communist Teachers to be ashamed of their own loving father flying their own national flag! Even the local football club took down their England flag.
And yet the whole town turns out every year for the Remembrance Day parade and service, with red poppies everywhere, never asking themselves “Is this what our ancestors fought and died for? So that their descendants would be ASHAMED to fly their own National Flag of England? If the English people do not have the courage to even fly their own national flag, how will they have the courage to resist their own destruction? The cowardice is shocking.
Are any of the other “patriot” commenters on here actually flying, displaying, or… Read more »
I didn’t even know it was St George’s day to be honest…
Can’t blame them to be honest. Crap wages, treated like a mug, taken totally for granted and chucked out the main gate after you’re done. They don’t care about you, why bother giving them the best years of your life?
It used to be a way of life, then became just a job, then became a crap job.
Your country needs YOU…
…To be persecuted decades later for doing a necessary dirty job by human rights lawyers in legal chambers and politicians who wouldn’t know a war zone until it blew out what pass for their brains.
I wonder which “half” won’t fight for the UK?
I’d hazard a guess that the ones who would fight wouldn’t be too keen on leaving their wives and daughters alone in the UK with those they won’t go to fight