Mandatory National Service for 18 yr olds Sunak decrees

[Heavenssakes]

How do you feel about mandatory National Service for 18 year olds - Sunak says he will introduce it if he wins election.

This is so not what I want for my DC, nor something they want to do. 1 years military service, when they have worked hard towards getting into Uni, and developing a career?

It's like steppng back into the 1950s.

Only saving grace, I can't imagine the forces wanting or being able to deal with thousands of press-ganged kids.

I fear for Sunak's sanity.

https://news.sky.com/story/sunak-says-he-will-bring-back-national-service-if-tories-win-general-election-13143184

How is it mandatory if they’re given a choice? They’re so pathetically clutching at straws trying to appeal to a certain demographic. The sooner they piss off the better!

Absolutely. It's the old 'joke', isn't it, where somebody addressing a small crowd says "I need a volunteer... you, you'll do, come up here!!"

Except this time, they're deadly serious.

Have posted on a few threads about this but if it’s deemed beneficial for 18 year olds then surely it’s equally beneficial for everyone of working age. Older even if still fit, there isn’t a
mandatory retirement age any more. All die one and one for all and all that.

One of my DC volunteered for a charity, working outdoors in all weather for three hours every Monday evening for four years between the ages 12 to 16 - can they be exempt? If not,
why not? Latterly it was taken into account as DoE volunteering but not for the first couple of years.

I completely agree: it should be compulsory for everybody under 90 who wants it to be compulsory - considering that a lot of it isn't physically demanding, but just designed to pointlessly waste your time enable you to play your part in the community.

You're either in favour of it for everybody, in which case you're in too; or you're not, in which case you're exempt, like everybody else except those who actively choose it.

What you can't do is dictate what other people must do whilst conveniently excluding yourself - especially when it's something that you never had to do when younger. Otherwise, you might as well insist on 80% tax for everybody apart from those who share your surname and live at your exact address: utterly stupid and ridiculous.

I would never want my child to fight for let’s face it.. oil. My heart is with service men and women I don’t know how they do it, but no way. I’d move us

I'm not sure it's such a bad idea.

That's exactly what they have proposed. NHS or public service alternatives.

The military option can be full time or "one weekend" a month, too, apparently.

No point getting worked up about, though. He won't get elected. It's all lalaland.

It won't happen but if it did they'd be sending all this generation back to their mums before the weekend is up thanks to all the lack of discipline when it comes to parenting these days

they’d probably be asking why they were doing it but their parents didn’t. My DCs have volunteered for years and neither are adults yet, DC1 has had a part time job all year while still at school as have most of their friends. I only worked in the holidays at the same age.

Can't imagine this has been done with the support of the NHS, fire or charities. Supporting volunteers is a lot of work/admin, the last thing they'd want are people who don't really want to be there. The cost of supervising them would way outweigh the benefit of having them.

Are you going to go and sign yourself up tomorrow?

You may have made that choice not to bother parenting or disciplining your own children; but don't presume to speak for the rest of us.

The whole problem with this is in selecting arbitrarily by age, rather than using a modicum of common sense and selecting those who have already proven they would benefit from some latterly-provided discipline, having previously not been brought up with it (or otherwise having ignored and spurned it all).

Ah, so he stands out in the rain, then decides to spin it and make out he's so resilient - and resilience is just what our good for nothing yoof needs...
Let's make men of 'em, eh?
Sad and pathetic.

Well at least this is not going to happen as he is not staying. However, what if Labour comes up with this too? Apparently, Macron is proposing similar.

Well that's the young vote lost then. The Tory party needs to remember that this generation of young people are more politically engaged than previous generations. If they want to win they need to appeal to all not just the 'back in my day' brigade.

Also who is going to run and administer this and how much money will it cost? I'm sure the NHS would welcome the help but supervision of 18 year olds is a whole different thing. What if the 18 year olds have a part time job, will their employers be understanding?

It’s almost like he wants to lose or something.

Taking it with more seriousness than it deserves it looks like it’s about forcing young people to do community service to avoid serving the forces.

Which would doubtless eventually be used to bludgeon public services further in some way. No need to pay for so many bin men when you can get the youngsters to help out etc. A bit like food banks being used to replace emergency loans.

The ones who do serve would then be first in line to be called up as reservists in the event of war as they had had some training. They’d have been better not cutting the numbers in the forces so much, which looks really short sighted now.

But in reality it’s just headline grabbing culture wars idiocracy.

@ZazieBeth I agree, it just smacks of desperation to be honest.

There's a lot of 18 year old I wouldn't want anywhere near vulnerable adults

So 18 year olds trying to continue education and pay for it by part time jobs will lose an entire weekend’s pay every month? Who are these employers who will work around that rather than employ weekend staff who can work every weekend?

Honestly I was born in the 50s and National Service was long gone. I don’t hear anyone asking for this in my peer group (60s) or above. Who does he think this would appeal to?

If my child had been at uni at 18, would I rather they were working at weekends to support themselves or doing some half-cock charity thing? Or if they had gone to work at 18, why should they give up one weekend a month?

My husband is from another European country which had National Service into the 80s and they abandoned it because it was a) unmanageable and b) unpopular.

I do wonder if he want to win this election or can see the issues ahead and just wants out.

A huge number of the eighteen year olds I know have part time jobs in addition to full time education. Where are they going to fit in one weekend a month on top of that?

It's two extreme ways of seeing young people - Starmer wants to give them the right to vote, Sunak wants them to work for free - with no enfranchisement.

@SirAlfredSpatchcock
Wow you took that seriously 😂

"You may have made that choice not to bother parenting or disciplining your own children; but don't presume to speak for the rest of us."

What on earth are you on about my babies are still babies 😂

You can't learn a single useful thing in 25 days in cyber defence. Not one. Except maybe how to make the coffee.

It would be a drain on those doing the job to have to babysit like this all the time.