I’m surprised at a lot of these comments. I’m not sure if people didn’t read the article, or the other articles that have featured the “head of the British Army,” but what we have is…. A retired man (the general in this article) and a man who WILL be retired in six months (the current head of the Army, so him mentioning conscription is like Rishi Sunak mentioning a bill the Tories are going to pass in 2025 - I think not).
And if you read THIS article, THIS RETIRED MAN WITH NO POWER AT ALL says that they don’t have the budget for the army they need which is why they need a “citizens volunteer army.” That’s not exactly conscription. When you conscript people, you still have to feed them, clothe them, and PAY THEM so their families don’t starve back home. One of my grandfathers joined the Navy at 15, lied about his age, so he could send money home and his mother and sister wouldn't starve.
I have no idea if what this retired general talking about is taking volunteers for three weeks, giving them a rifle, training them on it, and then sending them back to their villages so if an invasion happens, they know which end to point at the enemy - or what. But if he’s complaining they have no money to grow the army now, then they have no money for conscription.
It would take a full scale declaration of war in order to get the apparatus the would need to even run a conscription program. You can’t just wake up one morning and decide to do it.
But it seems equally foolish to me that some commenters are saying they’d rather live under a dictator than die. Really? Don’t you know anyone gay, or disabled, or outspoken? Because there’s no place for any of them in Putin’s Russia. Some of them will die. Living under a dictator means constantly fearing imprisonment and death for stepping out of line or not fitting in. So please don’t spit on everyone you wear a poppy for once a year by saying they should have just stayed home and rolled over.