National Service if Tories are re-elected

[MaryMaryVeryContrary]

Thoughts? 🍿

I’m in two minds about what on earth is going on.

However I had a father who did national service and it was the making of him. He was born I. A workhouse and left school at 14 having had 8 schools. His job was delivery for Liptons at aged 14. Square bashing and then actual active service and being shot at changed him. He left the army and got his school certificate and then ultimately night school for A Levels and then university. That would not have happened if he had not learnt self discipline with the army.

i also had a cousin who did national service ( foreign side). He was so proud of it all and his uniform and it was probably the most exciting. thing that he did with his life. Again it transformed him and encouraged a form of maturation and self respect. However I also know people who left countries to avoid the draft.

Yet given the current political situations and the sheer political suicide of this suggestion I’m really worried now about world politics.

@exLtEveDallas @crumblingschools
The proposal is for all 18yos, some of the 'benefits' for those who are NEET have been specifically discussed.

It'll be a strategy very popular with idiots who have never done a day's service in their lives.

It'll be a strategy very popular with idiots who have never done a day's service in their lives.

This & imo the above are a better fit for cannon fodder.

National Service should be introduced but the first cohort should be anyone who voted for it. Prove it to us all that it's beneficial. 2 years of Army for the angry 55 year old. That would sort out their superiority complex.

The (outsourced) recruitment process for the forces is so bad that if you applied now you'd probably be joining around September 2025 but Rishi thinks he can start from scratch and set up NS in the same time 🤣🤣

If it’s such a good idea why didn’t the Tories introduce it in all the years they’ve been in charge? Rishi is desperate & it’s a stupid idea.

It’s scary that the Tories think this appeals to their core voter base.

Why people think is ok to call someone a Gammon? This is wrong as it is to use other pejorative words that can land you in jail. The hypocrisy is astounding.

was born I. A workhouse and left school at 14 having had 8 schools. His job was delivery for Liptons at aged 14. Square bashing and then actual active service and being shot at changed him.
I mean seriously, this is the point - it belongs to another era. There are no workhouses. No one leaves school at 14 now.

There needs to be a form of "National Service" for politicians: they have to work for a year (or preferably three years) in a customer-facing job, or a minimum wage job, before being allowed anywhere near Parliament, to prove that they have lived in the real world.

So many politicians were born into wealth, went to a posh school, and as such, have no idea at all about the lives of the people their policies affect the most.

I think he has a political suicide wish. He is actively trying to destroy his own party.

It’s a crap idea from an inept prime minister who has only had crap ideas. So far, after 18 months of leadership, it is his third idea after compulsory maths to 18 and banning cigarettes forever for those born after 2009. All show he is completely out of touch.

For further context, we already have cadets. In the last two years the MoD funded opportunities for naval cadets have been cancelled in their entirety. Given that there isn’t enough money to pay for training courses for kids who are already interested in a military career, I’m not sure where he thinks the money for national service will come from. And that just a practical issue with his uncosted idea, not a philosophical one about rights and responsibilities.

It’s not dissimilar from his Maths idea, in that they both show complete ignorance. Is he unaware that we have the highest level of school refusal in our history? If we can’t get 11 year olds into the classroom, how does he think we will get 18 year olds in? Maybe focus on getting 11-16 maths working first! The beauty of our sixth form system is that adolescents suddenly have choice and agency.

Thoughts,?
How will universities cope with sudden drop in numbers until things level out?
Did our children not do enough social commitment by obeying C19 rules and having their education interrupted for a whole generation ?
No way my child being cannon fodder!
Where will the barracks be and who will run them?
that’s off the top of my head, no,no,no,NO

Every day it's like waking up to some new horror!!He's lost it properly now!

I feel like this generation are having every hope stolen from them.The closure of schools during Covid,a declining economy and then the prospect of half baked/uncertainly funded NS which hampers university/training options.

Yes I do agree, there is too much ageism on MN with talk of “gammons” and “boomers” always in a negative context.

I’m neither a gammon nor a boomer but it grates on me to see such terms used so freely when the same people presumably are careful not to use discriminatory language when talking about people of different races or other characteristics people have no control over.

Add in Brexit and being shut out of Europe, decking NHS, no mental health support, underfunded education, unaffordable housing….

Hopefully this will motivate younger votes to go to the ballot box. What a ludicrous idea
My 17 yo is autistic and can barely leave the house without support. He really is in cloud cuckoo land

Yes I do agree, there is too much ageism on MN with talk of “gammons” and “boomers” always in a negative context.

Ageism tends to go both ways, it’s just snowflake is not seen as offensive as gammon or whatever. There is a particular type that that the Tories are trying to appeal to here and will love this policy, I guess boomer is used by some as shorthand for that.

Well it’s certainly sealed for me that I wouldn’t vote for him (not that I was going to). My kids have already done CCF and that was quite enough. Would this be including girls also?

Add in Brexit and being shut out of Europe, decking NHS, no mental health support, underfunded education, unaffordable housing….

There has been no investment in younger people, it’s shameful.

Most 18 year olds will be needing to save for uni,
or to get on some kind of housing ladder, studying, working or trying to get well if out of everything. Where is there going to be time to muck about playing soldiers? It would also be hugely detrimental for some.

Finally you can bet Tarquin and co’s National Service would in no way represent Joe Blog’s. It will just be used as another way to further inequality.

Would this be including girls also?

why wouldn’t it?

Now apparently there is billions for this. If I was 18 I’d be might bloody pissed off!

I have voted conservative for much of my adult life, this is the final straw, I 100% will not be voting conservative at this election. I would actively look to emigrate if such policies came in.

My dad missed it by two weeks, it was for everyone born before 1 March 1940. He wouldn’t have passed the medical anyway but actually wanted to go.

The country I grew up in had mandatory national service and it was prison if you refused which people did do.

Not sure if Italy still has it but loads of people avoided it by saying g they were gay or mentally ill. And South Korea obviously still has it because they’re technically still at war.

My DS would love the cyber security aspect of it but he is autistic so they prob won’t allow him to do it anyway, as you can’t join the forces if you’re autistic.

If there is actually a war there will be a draft/conscription and people will have to go anyway. My grandad was drafted aged 32 for his special skills and left his mental health in Normandy.

We have had it easy in this country for years. People on here seem a bit naive about what goes on in the rest of the world.