National Service if Tories are re-elected

[MaryMaryVeryContrary]

Thoughts? 🍿

Do other Tory MPs know about this, or did he dream it up over a cream puff this afternoon?

Lets see Sunak do any sort of service first, before he gets to impose it on others

The conservatives are utterly fucking dead to me now.

What did the 18 year olds do to deserve this?? And if an option is a weekend a month doing voluntary service then the whole fucking adult population should do it.

Including the boomers this is supposed to appeal to. Hell - why not send them to do a year in the armed forces? They’ve had a good life already?

I actually think Rishi is trying as desperately hard as he possibly can to lose this election. What an utter cnt.

Ive name changed for this.

He's lost his mind. This is bonkers.

He wouldn't have it for his DCs!

Like every household having seven different rubbish bins.
OR fining the homeless if they are too smelly.

It said 18-year-olds would have a choice of either joining the military full-time, or volunteering one weekend every month carrying out a community service.
The party is proposing a Royal Commission to consider the details but would plan for the first teenagers to take part in September 2025.
The cost is expected to be around £2.5bn per year.
Under the plans, young people could choose a full-time, 12-month placement in the armed forces or UK cyber defence, learning about logistics, cyber security, procurement or civil response operations.
Their other option would be to volunteer one weekend per month - or 25 days per year - in their community with organisations such as fire, police and the NHS.

Conservatives plan to bring back mandatory National Service - BBC News

What if an 18 year old is studying?
Going to uni and needs to study?
Has a weekend job
Doesn't want to.

I had to check it wasn't April 1st when I read this.
Sunak doesn't actually want ANY votes does he?

Best lol thread going😂

Maybe all the Tory MPs who are standing down and those who lose their seats, can be the first to do the new National Service. Practice what you preach of course

If, and it’s and bloody great if, National Service was brought back in, DS1 would get the army to pay for his degree (that was his plan any way) sign off and never look back. He wouldn’t be the only one to leave, either. They have a hard enough job keeping themselves and the ones who joined voluntarily motivated.

As if our young people haven’t been through enough. The cost of it! The presumption! You keep thinking how low will they go and then they surpass themselves!

I'm true blue Tory and have been out all day, heard this on the radio on the way home and thought fuck me he really is just counting on the pensioner vote isn't he!

Would you still vote Tory after this??

It’s not a matter of don’t want it- it’s a matter of the fact that all the Baltic counties are manning up and increasing their armies , Russia has a missile pact with China and the next war will be land based. So whether you want your little darlings to be in the army or not is neither here nor there - something is afoot eg the huge increase in trade Russia and China. The governments don’t want to spook the markets by saying ‘We are worried’.

Even Germany is mulling over introducing conscription. They only got rid of it in 2010. It’s being currently debated.

This is nothing to do with an election because as you can see it’s an election loser. It’s to do with World politics - my goodness I thought you all read the news!

Maybe they did a survey and showed people supported it

Stupid idea. I'm pretty sure the armed forces or NHS, police and fire service aren't going to want masses of unenthusiastic 18 year olds for a year / each weekend. What will you get them to do?! And a lot of 18 year olds work weekends particularly if they're working around studying. It's a poorly thought through suggestion to appeal to the 'back in my day...' brigade.

It’s being debated all over Europe - read the news! We are all being put on a war footing.

As an ex forces guy, the military by and large wouldn’t want national service. Ultimately there would be too many people that wouldn’t want to be there and it wouldn’t work.
However, national service isn’t just about the military. But no, I don’t think it would
work in any sense.

2.5 billion pounds worth of sheer bollocks.. and if the 18 year old tells them to stuff it? then what??

Yes, I do read the news and, yes, I know it's being mooted quite widely.

But this isn't about world politics. This is Rishi desperately trying to appeal to the Daily Torygraph/Wail voter.

Frankly, it would make more sense/would be more meaningful if it was being proposed in the context of world war.

Absolutely no way. Did we learn nothing from WW1 or WW2? If we need a larger armed force then recruit properly and pay properly

National service was stopped
in 1963 I think. So that was over 60 years ago. Anyone that ever did National service would be 80 or over.

I dare say most advocates for National service are Daily Mail readers who’ve never even done it themselves

Forced volunteering... hmmm there's a word for that... slavery?

It's actually hilarious 😂

Doubt it’s logistically possible. Where will the military put every 18yo in the country? What about those who have a medical exemption? A woman was on the news this week as she was rejected on a family history of breast cancer. One of my dc isn’t eligible due to a food allergy. People are rejected on the basis of a single GP visit for anxiety. I guess at least if you opt for the full time military role then you will get paid. Not like the poor gits who are working who now have to spend their days off volunteering or are students and have to give up paid shifts in their weekend jobs to hang around a fire station getting under everyone’s feet. What about 18yo who already work for the NHS, police or fire service? Do they do a bit extra for free? Why should the youngest of our adults, who already don’t have an entitlement to the same minimum wage, have to spend time working for nothing?

I read the news. I keep up with absolutely everything that our armed forces might be involved in because DS1 is right in the centre of it and until 2 years ago DH was too. When this was announced DH laughed and said “well that’s one way to get rid of your armed forces.”

The armed forces aren’t Ike they were in the 1950s and 1960s. Phase 1 and 2 training takes many, many months. DS1 is constantly on courses and exercises. They’re highly skilled individuals. The idea the Tories have is stupid and it won’t work.