Micaela Tracey-Ramos, UNISON NEC Young Members’ Representative, writes on the current crisis facing Britain’s youth.
More than a million young people aged 16 to 24 are not in education, employment, or training (NEET), according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Unless something drastically changes for young people, there could soon be one in six young people who are NEET. These figures are reflective of the crisis facing British society, with years of underinvestment in our public services leaving our services crumbling and unable to cope with the level of demand.
Yet, nearly two years into this government elected in 2024 on a clear mandate of change, the Labour Party has not delivered for working class people and our public services. Is it a shock then that voters voted in huge numbers for alternative parties in last month’s election? Reform – a racist, far-right party – massively gained ground by promising an alternative.
While discussing Labour’s austerity and underinvestment policies, there is an elephant in the room we have to address – an issue too often overlooked or ignored when arguing for an economic alternative. The government is projected to spend 2.5% of GDP in 2026 on so-called ‘defence’ spending, up from 2.3% in 2025. According to its Strategic Defence Review published in 2025, the government plan to increase military expenditure to 3.5% of our GDP in the next 10 years.
This never-ending pot of money for ‘defence’ spending, comes at a time in which our communities and young people are suffering at the hands of underinvestment by successive Tory and Labour governments. One thing that is abundantly clear is that the government can only afford this dramatic increase in military spending by cutting public services.
Often politicians rave that the war industry creates well paid jobs for working people. That military spending will ‘kickstart’ our economy. However, research shows (particularly well outlined in the Alternative Defence Review), that this is a myth, one espoused by arms manufacturers and politicians to justify massive increases in so-called defence spending. What the evidence actually shows is that investment in public services, social infrastructure, and clean energy has a much more positive impact on the economy rather than investments in bombs.
Arguments about a different economic alternative in Britain cannot ignore these facts. They cannot continue to ignore how the war economy is making us poorer and how the British working class are paying for USwars around the world.
As trade unionists and peace campaigners we must ensure that we offer an alternative to the war economy, one that invests in social infrastructure and the means of life, rather than an economy that invests in the war industry.
Another profound reason for trade unionists to reject the war drive is that instead of making us safer as politicians profess, more military spending makes us unsafe. Instead of working towards peaceful international relations, Britian is supplying weapons to the world’s aggressor – US President Donald Trump. A US administration which has started an illegal war on Iran, killing thousands of men, women and children; deprived Cuba, a sovereign Caribbean nation, of oil; violated Venezuela’s sovereignty by kidnapping their President; and for years facilitated and financed the genocide in Gaza.
Often framed as unavoidable events, it is the war drive that creates these global crisis and instability. Is this the future that we should offer the youth and working people of Britain?
Instead of accepting it as an inevitability, should we not be fighting for an alternative? A future in which British people and working people around the world can have real peace, security, and investment in the very fabric that keeps our society functioning.
As outlined above, it is hardly a surprise that British working people are being swept up in the divisive and racist ideas of the far right. Blaming migrants for our crumbling services or lack of job opportunity for young people. Our role as peace campaigners is to expose the truth – successive governments have underinvested in our services in order to drive the war industry.
Our communities need to know that investment in ‘defence’ is a political choice not an inevitability. That investment in the war industry is irreconcilable with investment in our youth, jobs, and services. And that we can offer an alternative – one of hope, peace and security; rather than a future ravaged by war, job insecurity, and lack of opportunity.
There IS a future worth fighting for.