To wonder why people aren’t worried about this??

[Mummytotwonow]

https://news.sky.com/story/time-to-think-the-unthinkable-and-consider-uk-conscription-says-britains-former-top-nato-commander-13056148

Sorry if I’ve missed any threads on this.

It’s not just sky news reporting this but for days now in the media this is being raised.

AIBU - to be extremely worried and concerned about this?

Is anyone else not worried?? Are we being prepared ready as “the higher up” know more and the threat is bigger than we’re told.

what age would it be from and to??

l‘m so scared for the world our children are growing up in 😢

The guy is highlighting the level of underfunding for the armed forces. It's literally his job. And he's right, Putin is as dangerous now as the USSR was in the cold war, yet our investment in defence is a fraction of what it used to be. It doesn't mean they are expecting a war, just that we need to be prepared.

As for conscription, my 15 y/o is still likely to trip over his own shoelaces, I can't see him being an asset to the army.

There is another thread. It’s just a headline atm and giving too much concern to rolling headlines that probably won’t happen isn’t worth it

We're sleepwalking into war, it's not on the horizon it's now. I worry that NATO will not be as decisive or as swift as they need to be.

Terrrence.

Your "children" will not be fighting any war. They'll be adults by then, and may well not want the Russians to "take over" and subjugate anyone else's actual children.

Jesus wept.

Bollocks

Agreed. There was an expert on the military and war on the radio earlier. He was saying they need to bolster the number of our armed forces. The larger the number in our forces the more likely we are to deflect a war.

This isn’t gonna happen. War’s different now from how it was at the time of the 2nd world war. What they need now aren’t masses of boots on the ground drafted in from the streets. They need highly trained professionals, and technical skills. This is just a political strategy to leverage money for that (and more weapons).

There’s no way conscription would work nowadays unless we were facing a land invasion. Otherwise people just would not comply and there would be minimal social pressure for them to.

Well my family is utterly f*cked if this comes to fruition as I have four sons 😫 those with four girls will be fine though.

Could identify as women. That’ll probably work…

Let who take your children?! You think the UK government are going to be kidnapping kids and sending them off to Russia?! lol

@Vettrianofan plenty of women in the forces these days, I don't think women would escape.

Honestly it's scaremonger tactics.
It won't happen.
If they genuinely thought we would be at war then they would be keeping steel plants open so we didn't have to import supplies.

Why would any young person go and fight for the gerontocracy that runs the country? I guess they could try offering them a house or something else they’d otherwise never be able to afford.

@DontSetYourselfOnFireToKeepOthersWarm because they don't want to live in a Russian invaded UK and live under Putin who I dare say is worse to live under than a tory government..

People saying ‘oh my kids won’t be fighting’ are kidding themselves, that’s not how conscription works funnily enough. If it comes to it- they’ll be going. Mothers didn’t want their kids to fight in any other war either, that’s kinda the whole point in conscription

i’m not sure the difference is big enough to die over

I don't think it would be just me who were conscripted.

'Lest we forget' but we have...

No chance until there's a real/imminent threat of our country itself being invaded. There's no public appetite for people in the UK to get involved with "other people's" wars. If we saw Russia start to mobilise troops towards Western Europe and heading towards the UK, then I think we'd feel differently, or if bombs/missiles started landed in the uk!

Sorry, I mean, men not 'me'

Just scaremongering to try and get the govt to boost defence spending. I also bet that one of the main talking points for the general election will be which party would you trust if we end up at war (remember the debate around Trident and whether May/Corbyn would press the button if needed). I think a direct war between the UK and Russia (or anyone else) is unlikely. I can't see us attacking anyone, especially if our military is so underfunded, and anyone attacking us would have to be seriously stupid given that it would trigger a huge response from NATO. In the unlikely event that I got called up (female, serious back problems, shit eyesight, unfit) then I would say no and happily go to prison!

Tell me you don’t know what’s going on in Ukraine without telling me you don’t know what’s going on in Ukraine.

I’m sure Ukrainians wouldn’t agree with you. You’re probably missing the reality of what you suggest

Like you just did?

If the uk was invaded like Ukraine, would you all just sit back lockdown style? I would absolutely fight for our independence and freedom from a Russian dictatorship. Would I choose it? No, but life choices aren’t always ours. I didn’t choose covid either but I coped the best we could in the circumstances.

Bet those who died in the wars in the last century or so so you could make silly comments like this would be proud of you- not

you really want a nasty twat like Putin to roll in and take over, unbelievable