We are being primed

[Mambo19866]

Story after story now of conscription being needed. I was thoroughly convinced that this is just scaremongering but the number of senior figures coming out again today warning us to prepare it really feels like they are getting us used to the idea. Also in the papers today the US is moving some of its nuclear stockpile to the UK. Getting bit nervous now I have to admit.

So what exactly would they have done when faced with Hitler?

@Mirrorpillar thanks for your service. Two lads my DS was friendly with at school are both in the army. Both a bit of risk of getting up to no good, it has really been the making of them. One especially has thrived and has now achieved the qualifications that he did not manage at school. DS went to air cadets and did consider the air force but is doing a degree apprenticeship now He is off out with his old air cadets tonight, fab bunch of young people, one will be absent as he is in the RAF overseas currently.

I’m anti war, my grandparents on one side were both in the military and the others who were immigrants were refugees in WWII. Until every country becomes a positive delight we all need the military, so we will always need the military. I don’t want a war but if a war ever came and conscription if it comes about ever it’s that or being a conscientious objector or in a reserved occupation. DS age group would be some of the first called up after people who have served as they are first called up and have to dispense a certain number of years.

It should. And I hope it is

But sadly we are not without expansionist dictators who see their young as expendable and will send them to fight and do horrific stuff generally. So it’s not always a choice but to protect

Ironic how often people are accused of ageism on mumsnet and yet for young people it’s fair game to be incredibly rude and dismissive of them.
I work with young people- most of them are fantastic. And they won’t be fighting with guns on the front line they’ll be coding like mad and taking down all the IT infrastructure in the opposite countries.

Mumsnet can we ask people for to stop with the ‘Gen Z and millenials are useless’ tropes. It’s tedious.

Simple things anyone can do might be keeping bottles of water and having rainwater butts so you still have clean drinking water and can flush the toilets in your home, keeping a stock of basic tinned foods, keeping some cash in your home in the event that cards can't be used.

We have a generator and alternative heating source but we're pretty rural so it would be silly not to have those anyway.

We currently have an education system where kids can’t be punished because there’s no PRUs or special school places and pressure not to suspend/expel.
How is the army going to deal with people who grew up in an education system that allowed them to be violent or disrespectful without consequence?
This isn’t a youth bashing post by the way. The system is designed and funded by much older adults who won’t see beyond the next general election. They can’t see how behaviour in schools intertwines with other areas like crime, health and social care.

Mumsnet can we ask people for to stop with the ‘Gen Z and millenials are useless’ tropes. It’s tedious.

Agree the tropes don't help but I definitely am a useless millennial!

Mumsnet can we ask people for to stop with the ‘Gen Z and millenials are useless’ tropes. It’s tedious

Good luck with that. Some of us have asked MN to deal with the ageism at the opposite end and been told to 'challenge' it - i.e MN is going to do sweet FA.

The younger generation may be the solution. The Russian young people we know are horrified with the actions of their home country. The internet makes it impossible for dictators and autocratic governments to brainwash and manipulate in the same way they did.

So faced with a determined aggressor, like Hitler or Putin, what do you think they should do? Simply let them invade wherever they like? What about when it's home shores? You write as if these things are hypothetical, when they are very much historical. The fact is that you do live in that sort of world, it just hasn't yet touched you personally.

So faced with a determined aggressor, like Hitler or Putin, what do you think they should do? Simply let them invade wherever they like? What about when it's home shores? You write as if these things are hypothetical, when they are very much historical. The fact is that you do live in that sort of world, it just hasn't yet touched you personally.

Wouldn't it depend what the Russians were offering? Resistance & death or allegiance & housing? 😆

No, I don't think you do get it.

Police, paramedics, firefighters and yes the military have a very different brand of humour, and a quick pisstake Dad's Army is absolutely fine by me.

There hasn't really been a time since then when invasion and fighting to repel invaders from our territory was really considered. And as an island, geography helps us. But war in Europe is bound to involve us, and serious decisions about size and nature of the Forces need to be taken.

As an aside, Sting is now older than Clive Dunn was when he joined the cast of Dad's Army.

@Gall10 I started as a community care worker aged 21, worked my way up quick, and subsequently have been a registered care manager in various care and mental health settings for 23 years, with a short sojourn into managing services for unaccompanied minors seeking asylum.
I think young people should be conscripted for a year into a useful occupation (with a variety to choose from, ie military, environment, care, cleaning, basic utility maintenance to suit what might have a chance of interesting them to some degree). To give them work experience,life experience and to help those industries that are in dire need yes.

Can you now tell me how you think a raw 18 year old recruit is different to the calibre of people I currently get coming through? Lots of whom also have no experience or aptitude for care but can't get jobs elsewhere. Can you also tell the two 18 year olds who came on induction training this week in my company, who were far more enthusiastic and eager to learn and work than any of the middle aged people who showed up and barely contributed and looked bored?

Good luck with that. Some of us have asked MN to deal with the ageism at the opposite end and been told to 'challenge' it - i.e MN is going to do sweet FA.

Yeah there was a recent thread specifically about ageism. The OP was of course full of ageist comments against the youths 😆

My parents had me at an older age. And I’m 60.

Df was conscripted into the Desert Rats for 5 years. It broke his mental health for ever and he later tried to commit suicide over it when l was 4. This was 25 years after the war ended.

Dm spent all her young adult years 19-25 doing nights in munitions.

My uncles fought at Monte Christo. They never talked about it, but my dm told me they were terrified all the time. They would have been very early 20’s.

They hated hated the war and being dragged into it. Churchill’s name was like the antichrist in our family. They wanted the UK to find peaceful solutions and not to fight a rich old man’s war.

I think it is very unfair to say young people are useless and incompetent. My 19 year old immediately said he'd go when he heard this on TV. He did brilliantly on his DofE gold and I'm sure it wouldn't take long to train him, he didn't do it alone and quite a high proportion of his sixth form did it so I think plenty of teens, male and female, would be fit enough physically and mentally.

Over 50? I think it depends how far over 50 you go and obviously it will vary. Some couldn't pick up a gun and after a march would probably be unable to move for days. I'm 70 and quite fit and I would be prepared to do my bit but I think it might be more like keeping the front line fed and doing some first aid but that's important as well isn't it. I think my eyesight is at the stage where they might think giving me a gun would just be a waste of ammunition. They might like a granny figure rolling up with the food truck.

And you know what pisses me off. The amount of people on here that I presume don’t have young children so are probably in their 50/60 who; never had to deal with a pandemic at a young age and be separated from friends and family and have sub par education for the best part of two years, who are now having to worry about the threat of a world war and a future where they can’t afford a house, dragging all these kids for not being good enough to be used as fucking cannon fodder.

Yep

We may be heading towards a horrible situation.

@FloorWipes my top tips; know when to walk away & always fight dirty. Having a few shady contacts helps too!

I’m 60. My dd was in y9 when schools closed. I am absolutely against conscription.

Millennials and Zoomers have been treated like shit. High house prices, low wages, Covid, student loans.

Mine will not be signing up to protect Rishis Prada clad backside.

More likely brutality and death

Essentially I did 'volunteer' for care work at a young age. I had three very good a levels and uni offers. I wanted to be a social worker and needed some experience to get on that specific course. So I took work as a care assistant and very quickly got promoted to management and was earning more than a social worker would-so I never went to do my social work degree.
Working in care at that age (which wasn't always enjoyable-emptying bed pans and getting bitten) taught me more about life than anything else could have. I was a bit of a tit when I first started-impractical, no common sense, and probs thought it was a bit beneath me and a means to an end. I soon learned and it was the making of me.

Judging by all the threads the gov will get the public to agree to increased defence spends so job done.

Our army and navy are in a shocking state that the public are being shocked into awareness is not a bad thing.