Which of your children would take up arms if need be to defend their country

Do they though?!

That's the point really, assuming places like Spain, Germany and France don't turn back the clock and decide to have another crack at invading Britain,

As pointed out previously, invading and occupying are completely different things. The only thing that connects them is invasion typically has to precede occupation.

Vichy France is probably more what we would see. The invading force would overwhelm our defences and rock up at Westminster where the government of the day would be invited to run the UK on their behalf. That is "invited" in the same way you are "invited" to pay your tax.

It's not just children who will need to fight in the next war, the whole country will need to fight. Would you fight? I like to think I wouldn't, but it would depend on the circumstances really. If it meant I could have a gun and some ammunition at home as a standby to fight invaders and enemies of the state already here I probably would (depending on whether the enemies seemed worse than the government at the time). I'm not going to go to Ukraine or Israel or France to fight though.

That's the point really, assuming places like Spain, Germany and France don't turn back the clock and decide to have another crack at invading Britain, they'd need to be overrun first and hopefully their own citizens would have weakened the enemy forces.

Of course Russia, North Korea and China are more likely just to nuke Britain altogether rather than invade, in which case there would be no fighting anyway. I always used to think North Korea was a long way away until someone pointed out that their missiles could easily reach us by heading over Russia and the Arctic, it's only about 5000 miles.

Yup. I keep food and water on hand for things like extended power cuts and very bad winter storms but hoping to prep for a shit hits the fan situation? No point.

I am perpetually amused by the (alleged) hard core preppers who point to their 3 weeks worth of water as if it counts for anything. Yes, they are a sensible precaution against bad weather, strikes, localised unrest or a marathon on the town.

But in a situation where the balloon really went up then the idea things will be up & running in 3 weeks is a little bit optimistic.

(Also why prep, if you and a gun can relieve preppers of their stuff ?).

I have thought about this after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I was initially surprised to read that Ukrainians aren't called up to fight until they are 25, but then thought that while traditionally warfare was very hand to hand, and involved having to carry your heavy equipment with you, these days most isn't like that. So it's no longer necessary for armies to consist of young men at their peak strength and fitness (and frankly, peak testosterone and aggression levels).

I'm in my fifties, and in a Ukraine like situation, I'd much rather it was me risking my life than young family members in their twenties.

In the countries involved yeah but the pp was talking about going to a country at peace. Though if there's a war in the UK then I doubt there will be much of Europe that's not involved so finding such a country, with a functioning private healthcare system and without strict border controls might be a tad difficult...

I'm guessing that if the conflict arose that involved civilians having to take up arms, then private healthcare would long since have collapsed.

I don't think Rishi Sunak thought any more than about scoring political points. He certainly wasn't serious about defence.

Respectfully, I would fight to defend my country. As would my kids, I think.

I do not think of the UK as my country. I am a citizen, I live here, but my home and my love is NZ. We pays our taxes, we live as good and contributing citizens, and that will have to be enough.

And hopefully they won't introduce such a rule, or indeed a general 'show your papers' rule in the event of war nearby, for national security reasons.

I would protect my family above all else including my country.

Didn't need to do that in NL or Portugal...

The worrying sad thing is that unlike in the 30s/40s there are many pople living here who don't like British people/England. The left push a narrative of being anti British/something to be ashamed of and to be proud of being British makes you 'far right'. I proud of being British and would stick my nect out to protect this country. I wouldn't sit back and expect others to do it. If the shit hit the fan you wouldn't have a choice. You would HAVE to do it unless you had health issues.

You might be surprised, not all private healthcare companies will just take unknown patients without ID/health insurance card. Might open them up to legal risk if something goes wrong. Certainly in my country you have to show your health insurance card before you get anywhere with private healthcare and you need to register with the authorities to get that.

I earn enough to pay privately for healthcare. I doubt private healthcare providers care enough to report paying patients.

I was brought up off grid so not concerned with that aspect!

So you'll live off the grid and never use healthcare or any other public service?

I suspect that joining the military might be an option in the near future for some young people. It has provided opportunities for some young people who didn't do well at school. One of my colleagues was worried about his son being injured in Afgahistanbut he's back in the UK working now. As Prime Minister Rishi Sunak thought the armed forces would need to be larger due to concerns over the effect of the war in Ukraine might have on Europe.

No. But I don't mind breaking the rules. How on earth are they going to know?? I work remotely so wouldn't be at all on the government's radar.

Concise and perfectly put.

Off you pop then.

Do you have citizenship in any of those countries? As if not, then you can't easily go live in them.

No. I was brought up pretty feral so I'm confident I could survive in eg the Forest of Dean and I'm too attached to, you know, being alive to join the fight. Pretty sure I could escape over the channel into Europe as well and I've lived in several European countries and speak the languages adequately. I'm not sufficiently patriotic to stay and fight for England when I could easily move to France/Portugal/Spain/Czech/ Holland

I notice you keep talking about what your family members have done. Not to be confused with anything you have done...
You sound like you're getting off on the excitement of it all. You need a dose of reality.

I think some of that comes from the fact the bus the time war broke out there was pretty much no ambiguity, Hitler and the Nazis were clearly the enemy.
I feel that Israel/ Netanyahu's government are very much the eneny, and yet UK military resources are being deployed to defend them, carry out reconnaissance flights etc.
That is why this is a very different situation.
I am disgusted that the UK aren't doing everything in their power to stop Israel, never mind sending my precious kids out to die protecting their maniacal genocidal government.