Gordon Brown links youth protests to widening generational divides

Gordon Brown argues in his November 2026 Guardian commentary that youth protests across multiple countries reflect a widening divide between younger people’s expectations and their economic opportunities. He links demonstrations over education costs, housing, austerity and military service to a broader loss of confidence in political institutions, rather than treating them as isolated national disputes.

Brown highlights Serbia’s Student List, which he says won a parliamentary election mandate and was preparing to form an administration. He describes candidate selection through student assemblies as a distinctive organising model. In Britain, he calls for pre-apprenticeship training, restored educational maintenance allowances and benefits reform to address youth unemployment.

The argument connects pressures on young people with competition for public resources. Brown says debt, defence costs and energy subsidies constrain governments, while older generations receive a substantial share of social spending. His article offers an interpretation of these tensions, but does not establish that the protest movements share a single programme.