The age of conscription should be lowered to 16

[Lovepeaceunderstanding]

The world looks much less stable than it has for a long while. In the event of war our depleted armed forces will need all the help they can get. We should lower the age of conscription to 16?

Absolutely not.

Feel free to volunteer only yourself, not others.

Back to your bot farm, Ivan

Are you signing your children/grand children up OP? No. Thought not.

DS can't fry an egg never mind be fit for fighting a war at that age🤣

why 16 OP? why not as soon as they can walk? bonus we save on childcare fees

Which crappy rag are you from?

There no place for conscription full stop!

Wish the same could be said of wars. Let the leaders/generals go and fight it all out in hand-to-hand combat.
I know there are far deeper issues and appreciate my comment is somewhat flippant but there must be a peaceful way to resolve things. Or rather, there should be.

I don't really see this country as a whole buying into a government that enforced conscription.
Everyone would rather break their own legs and stab themselves in the eye than go to war for no relevant reason I'd imagine.
If someone wishes to join the armed forces at 16 then they are legally able to currently. Which is fucking shite. You can't vote but you have to kill a load of foreign strangers or get blown up. Nice.

If you are so ill-informed to imagine the UK has conscription, I doubt your opinions on the matter are of any weight.
Today's 16 year olds are far too gormless and ill-disciplined to be of any use in a war.

16? Are you having a larf?
No, 14 - unless they have a paper round or another public service, e.g. climbing up chimneys to sweep them.

😂

In the words of my teenage son 'Er, No'

We could send Prince Andrew though. I would vote for that.

16 year olds are far less independent than they were last time we had conscription. They'd never cope. Conscription is not an answer anyway.

Absolutely not. I speak as a female that joined the Army as a teenager. I utterly loved it and served in Iraq etc.

I would never ever want to serve alongside someone that was conscripted to be there. It would be a recipe for disaster. It is incredibly hard even when you have chosen it. The thought of having my life dependant on someone that was only as they they were forced to be no way.

I have three teenagers and no way would I want that for them. If you are not willing to send your own teenagers you should not be willing to sacrifice someone else's.

@BobbyBiscuits "If someone wishes to join the armed forces at 16 then they are legally able to currently. "

Correct - but they need parental permission. The Army also have an assessment/selection procedure. They aren't going to take some half-baked lard-arse who likes wearing khaki

"Which is fucking shite."

Why?

"You can't vote but you have to kill a load of foreign strangers or get blown up."

That's what soldiers do - it's not a video game.

"Nice."

Depends what end of the barrel you are.

Looks like your army life served you well. Excellent post!

One of the more barmy ideas I have seen today. And I have been at work ( public services ) so have come across a few already...
Definitely not. Whatever happens our 16 year old young people should not be conscripted.
That is not a star idea on any level

@threeoldbicycles

I think you answered your own question quite well.

""Which is fucking shite."

Why?

"You can't vote but you have to kill a load of foreign strangers or get blown up."

That's what soldiers do - it's not a video game"

It's not nice. On either side of the barrell. Especially if you're a child.

No don't be so stupid.
You do not send children in to war.

Don't be daft.

We need our teenagers in case of occupation - if you've ever seen a bunch of Y9s actively target and take down a supply teacher who's shown an ounce of uncertainty, you'd know that their disruption, confusion-causing questions and ability to form large swarms of constantly moving, chattering, shouting, singing, asking irritating questions, then making repetitive sounds in waves that hit exactly the right pitch, timbre and duration to make an adult's head fold in on itself are going to form the absolute backbone of our resistance.

And the Y10-12s? They'll be the masters of guerilla warfare.

Surely it should be raised to a much older age if anything. Pensioners have lived their lives, if anyone is going to be used as cannon fodder it should be them.

And I assume that was your choice to do so?

We should start by conscripting all the boomers who are so keen on it , but never did it themselves

I thought Germany had always had this. They definitely did something similar 25 years ago, because I was a lazy misanthrope at 18, so neither idea appealed to me.

Why do you think we have conscription at all OP?

Conscription ended in 1960.