Does anyone think there's a real chance of conscription?

If we go to war and it becomes a ‘fighting on all fronts’ world kind of war, yes. The Army is understaffed as it is and while the soldiers are trained, it won’t take long in actual combat before the initial drive for sign ups is exhausted and we need to turn to conscription.

But it’s unlikely we’re heading into a world war any time soon and we should be good to cope until we do.

Yes.
About 3 years ago there was a collection of some sort going on in a supermarket car park, for Ukraine, and I confess that I did tell one of the organisers that I'd be willing to press a button to send a bomb-carrying drone to land on the Kremlin.

Maybe all the bedroom gamers could be retrained to fly drones

Yup, when your own country is at stake then people will have very different attitudes. I doubt there will be many still objecting when the enemy is an hour away from your home and advancing.

The funny thing about war is that once it is declared against your country, that will change your attitude towards things like conscription.

Keir Starmer mentioning boots on the ground is talking about a peacekeeping force, not an active hot war, so all this is just conspiracy theory and conjecture about a future possible situation that does not exist today.

I think though the times we live in are a wake up call that this country needs armed forces, and money needs to be invested there after all the decimation done by the tories over the past 14 years.

Quite a lot of confusion on this thread,mostly caused by the media which is politically driven.
There are no active plans for conscription but of course there is always forward planning for what are options are in times of war.

First into action will be the regulars. That's their job. But trained strength across all 3 services is low -frighteningly so in the case of the Army, so expect a big recruitment push. Then come the Reserves. Again,numbers are low with poor retention but they are trained and we have our first full Reserve Brigade stood up.
Next would be the Strategic Reserve. These are Veterans who can be recalled even after they have left service. Possibly no longer physically fit for the front line but deployable in logistics,clerical,planning,project management, cyber etc etc.

So, don't lie awake worrying about forced service. Better a volunteer than a pressed man any day!

What do you mean? That our conscripted fathers and grandfathers were not ‘aware’?!

Good grief. How disrespectful.

No but if there was, they surely would have to treat men and women the same? A female life is not more important than a male.

No. We can't even get children to behave at school, no chance you'd get them going to war unless they wanted to. They may offer a high wage as incentive, but we're past the level of public control to enforce it.

I doubt it would happen. And no,of course Starmer's kids wouldn't get called up, even if it DID happen,the same as Rishi Sunak's kids wouldn't have been called up to do National Service,if he had been able to proceed with the scheme.

I don't think military conscription is likely, but maybe National Service would be a good idea.

If (and again, I think it's unlikely) things reached the point where there were conscripts actually fighting, I can't see anyone getting away with conscientious objection easily. Who is going to sit back and see their kids slaughtered when the neighbours are picking and choosing what they fancy doing? By the time it reached that point, however, we would all be on the front line, as the fighting would be in the streets.

That's what I thought.

However they said there were documents saying Nazi seriously thought they could start a class war to their benefit and some in UK government thought similar - it was a reputable documentary company and TV channel - it's why it stuck with me as odd fact.

In that case - being a medic for example or distributing food to civilians - fine. Something like making weapons components I would not do.

I doubt conscientious objectors would be forced to fight but if there was mass conscription you'd have to serve in another way - doing essential work, being medics, that kind of thing.

In fact Nazi targeted working class areas of country for bombing hoping to start a class war - well that what one TV documenatry was telling me.
Hmm. Isn't it more likely that they were targeting shipyards and factories/munitions works, which is where the workers lived? Not much point in bombing Belgravia, really.

Don't be so silly.

You know exactly what I mean.

It’s always an option. If you don’t want to directly or indirectly support violence and harm you don’t have to.

Not unless the powers that be want Tim Tok to be flooded with “Come with me to this hidden gem called the frontline” reels 😂.

People saying that they would refuse. It wouldn’t be an option, for a start.

You can Google these things.

Churchill was a Tory. He was preceeded by Chamberlain, also a Tory known for his great appeasement policy (aka rubbing Hitlers belly and asking him if he wanted his ears scratched too - remind you of anyone orange faced). Hitler did precisely what he told Chamberlain he wouldn't in invading Poland and in doing so Chamberlain had no choice but to declare war on Germany and thus WW2 was started.
Churchill became PM shortly after when it became painfully obvious Chamberlain could not lead during wartime.

At the 1945 GE, the first in peacetime, labour won by a landslide as Churchill's campaign was focused still on War and Atlee (who won) ran on a pledge to rebuild and make things better. His government started things like laying the foundations for the welfare state, NHS and pensions.

Council housing was already a big thing, having been delivered in the wake of WW1 but labour delivered it to more (slum clearances, 1950s estates,).

I am in my 30s with no elderly relatives to ask but I read and learn these things as I don't think we can inform the future without learning about the past.

The social contract between the government and people was ripped up and spat on in 2020 and 2021.

In that case what would not sit well with you ?

I don’t have a view on you or your values, as I don’t know what they are and I don’t know you!

I understand, but none of that will make a blind bit of difference if we find ourselves in a position where we have to start conscripting people to join up.