Only 11% of Gen Z would risk their lives and fight for Britain - well, who wants more wars? We want peace and for things to be better

The study, carried out by YouGov and Public First and reported in The Times, found that only 11 per cent would fight for Britain, and 41 per cent said there were no circumstances at all in which they would take up arms for their country. As well as this, 50 per cent believed that the UK was stuck in the past.

General Sir Patrick Sanders, who was head of the British Army until June last year, told The Times: “If we aren’t prepared to fight for our freedom and way of life as we have always done, then we will become prey in a world of predators”. But I say, why do we need to fight in another war? Why can’t we just strive for peace? Why ask young people if they would fight for Britain?

We should all be thinking of a world without wars. You may think this is naïve, and not realistic of the world we live in. It may be idealistic but what is the harm in wanting us all to live peaceful and better lives without the hurt, destruction and loss that wars bring. I am Gen Z myself, and I believe that only a small number said that they would fight for Britain because no one really wants to fight in a war, whether for their country or not.

It doesn’t mean we are not patriotic - it’s just let’s all remember the reality of war. We’ve seen the devastation of previous world wars and the current wars that are still raging in the Middle East and Ukraine. We don’t want to see this continuing for decades to come, we want peace - and we want to have better lives.

The study even found that only 7 per cent would trust the police a lot if they were accused of a crime which perhaps shows another reason why only 11 per cent would fight for Britain. We don’t feel particularly safe in our country, there aren’t many police on the streets - and we have all seen horror stories to do with police, for example the awful tragedy of Sarah Everard. There have been some shocking stories which have made us lose faith in the police.

Aside from us just wanting peace and not having to fight wars, why would we want to fight for a country we don’t feel safe in? We all just want things to be better. We want better policing, we want the NHS to run better and not have huge waiting lists. The study found that little under half (48 per cent) would place significant trust in the NHS to treat them if they were ill, while 7 per cent would not trust the health service at all.

As a Gen Z, I think we just want a better quality of life. We are still patriotic and love our country, but we want peace - and it is hard to feel positive when there are so many downsides to where we live at the moment. Distrust in the police, health services amongst many other topics, do not help with feeling positive about life in Britain. Gen Z may be idealists, naïve and not realistic, but we just want things to be better.