Ted Jeffery: Gen Z defeatists are betraying Britain

Ted Jeffery is co-founder of Defence On The Brink

Britain’s youth has been poisoned by woke defeatism on both flanks. On one side, you have your anti-imperialist pacifists, and on the right, the ‘Britain first, Ukraine last’ isolationists. Neither end of our country’s TikTok-zoomer spectrum is prepared to stand up and serve their nation like our forefathers, and not only is that a betrayal of shared values and history, but it is also extremely depressing.

As part of the Government’s Strategic Defence Review, the Ministry of Defence announced the Armed Forces Foundation Scheme – a voluntary, paid ‘gap year’ offering young people hands-on experience in the forces. A brilliant plan that will hopefully help tackle the army’s ongoing recruitment and retention crisis. However, polling suggests that only 11 per cent of those aged 18-27 would be prepared to fight for Britain, and 41 per cent said there were no circumstances under which they would take up arms for their country.

So whilst Kyiv’s Zoomers are bleeding for their country, not just to defend Ukraine but the rest of Europe as well, my fellow Gen Zers in blighty seem more interested in hibernating under their John Lewis bedsheets, mindlessly scrolling through reels than preparing for the prospect of war.

The root causes of such scepticism vary. On the left, we have Zoomers fuelled by empire guilt and anti-Western narratives. In 2025, a London-based Uni student sparked debate online after he was vox popped, saying he would serve crack before serving his country. Whilst his contemporaries, straight out of central casting, spouted slander about the British Army being white supremacist, apartheid and inherently predatory. A moronic play to the gallery, but given that a mere 41 per cent of my generation are proud to be British – a significant decline from 80 per cent in 2004 – perhaps not a great surprise.

Meanwhile, amongst the right-wing reactionaries on X, although they claim to be red, white and blue patriots, they are fed on nothing more than a diet of Britain-first cynicism and irrational fears of anything which remotely resembles a ‘foreign war’. They foolishly fall into the trap of thinking that enlisting in such a scheme means you are enrolling to fight for the preservation of the current status quo regarding our omnishambles of a Labour government. It could not be further from the truth. Any collective effort towards war-readiness is intended to: A) prevent war via creating a workforce deterrent and B) ensure that all our liberties, including democratic freedoms, are protected.

Dimko Zhluktenko is a perfect example of this. He’s a 27-year-old Ukrainian drone pilot in the Unmanned Systems Forces. Dimko probably never expected he would have to enlist one day. Still, when Russia launched their full-scale invasion in February 2022, he gave up his well-paid IT job to put country first, never expecting anything in return. The definition of stoic bravery. He survives on only 2-3 hours of sleep a day, but, unlike some of Britain’s Zoomers, he understands that the sacrifices and war efforts of his generation are necessary for the survival of the next.

Nobody is saying, for one minute, that we should send our gap-year recruits to the front lines in eastern Ukraine; that would be madness, and the scheme makes it clear there will be no combat deployment. But a small contribution and act of national service towards building our defence industrial base is really not much to ask.

It is easy to view this gap-year scheme as one-dimensional, as if it were only about being suited, booted and ready for action. From March 2026, 150 youngsters (under-25s) will be recruited, before expanding to more than 1,000 per year, for placements of around a year (up to two in some services). These placements will offer life skills, leadership opportunities, and the chance to integrate with people from all backgrounds, with no long-term commitment required – and crucially, no deployment to operations. While there has been no confirmation of salaries, a basic army recruit earns around £26,000 a year, not to mention the added benefit of picking up a wealth of transferable skills in areas such as logistics and engineering. Not a bad start for those 946,000 16- to 24-year-olds NEETs who are not in education, employment or training.

Australia has an identical ADF Gap Year program, which has been considered a resounding success, especially in boosting recruitment. In the last year, the ADF enlisted 7,059 permanent full-time personnel, a 17 per cent increase over the previous year. Clearly an example of how adventure, pay and purpose can lure young people away from screens. But will Britain’s defeatists bother?

As we undoubtedly enter yet another year of grey-zone warfare attacks on our island, the choice for the defeatists who think this battle is not theirs is simple. Continue to sulk and waste your days mindlessly doomscrolling, or rise to the challenge and opportunity now presented – before it’s too late.