A new poll of young Britons aged 16-29 found 50% said they would not fight for the country under any circumstances, and only 38% would under some circumstances. The reluctance tracks with collapsing economic optimism: the share expecting better lives than their parents dropped from 63% to 36% in a year, while those expecting worse lives more than doubled from 13% to 38. Researchers attribute the unwillingness to fight to young people's growing pessimism about their futures.