AIBU to think no one agrees with conscription. Does Rushi want to loose the election? This feels like a threat not and election promise?

[Catchlock]

This has been popping up on my SM overnight. I feel like Rushinis doing his best to throw this election.

Who exactly thinks Conscription is a good idea and how would it work??

You can’t just implant a country’s culture into another cultures. Had mandatory national service always been part of our politics and national attitude then you’d be looking at a very different culture that has been crafted over 100+ years. Now you’d have

1. The headstrong or errant teens simply going AWOL – and what’s the punishment? Prison (when conservatives have drained the police to such an extent that they cannot even charge for real crimes)? Fines (which by and large 18yr olds can’t pay and would take huge resources to procure – when HMRC don’t even chase for tax fraud).
2. Huge numbers of aimless or troubled teens joining the military when it’s not in their best interests.
3. Huge numbers of teens unfit for military culture with authority and discipline problems, taking up resources to tackle.
4. Huge resources needed across already underfunded public sectors to train and oversee teen volunteering.

Ain’t gonna work.

I think it’s funny, ‘let the army sort them out’ mentality. It’s not really going to be a vote winner for most people.
I think adequately funding healthcare, education and youth services would have a far bigger impact on the outcome of most kids. But that’s too long term for most politicians.

It's lose, not loose.
It's lost anyway, Sunak can make up all sorts of nonsense just to grab the headlines.

Then put the parents in this weird half-baked boot camp bullshit.

Empower their kids with trust & respect instead.

Desperate attempt to appeal to Reform Voters.
I have voted Tory most of my life but won't this time, they are making it very easy for me to stick to my decision.
Its like when you leave a bad relationship and your EX continues to be a total arsehole or even ramps it up, it confirms that you were right to leave

🙄 Must I really run a fine tooth comb through every single pensioner to illustrate the demographic I am talking about.

You know exactly what demographic I mean, so let’s not be silly.

This topic is going to need its own section soon
Were the other 10 threads in Active not enough for you @Catchlock ?

Or are you another paid shill?

You can quit with the ageism for a start.
(59 lifelong Labour voter and remained)

It's a right wing wet dream, nothing more. Vile people.

They must be in the swing areas. Perhaps it's that redwall area that crumbled and got behind 'get brexit done' maybe they are heading back to labour now brexit is done but 'bring back national service' is something they like.

I think it will go down like cold sick in my traditional tory area though to be honest. There will certainly be a lot of working out how to ensure their own children/grandchildren are exempt and it's only for other people's 18 year olds.

I do wonder if the best solution to 'feral teens stabbing people' is to round them all up and teach them how to use guns....

(I realise the sort the army use are not the sort shoved down a county-lines dealer's joggers, but really?)

I want to see labours response to this. This is one hill hill I’m willing die on. I would mobilise against this. My son’s 15. I turned my stomach when I read it.

Absolute Lunacy
My DCs are young adults and pretty respectful as far as I can see.
They’ve both worked and volunteered (both at uni atm).

It’s not ageism, it’s statistics. 60% of 65+ years olds voted to leave in the referendum.

Regardless, it’s obvious of my post that I am not saying I believe ‘x, y, z’ of ‘pensioners’ by virtue of being a pensioner, I am saying that the Conservatives are going for a demographic, which is a percentage of the population determined by certain criteria and characteristics. This is how campaigning and political sway operates.

I agree with you totally. How about the people that agree with this go to? Do you really want to force our young people into this? Absolutely batshit idea.

All the parties have fucking nutty policies right now. It's so depressing.

I have a 14 year old son with autism and learning issues. He can't even tie his own shoelaces or ride a bike. I'm scared to death about an idea like this. Thankfully he has dual nationality with DH's home country. So frankly we would all say goodbye to the UK without a backward glance. I'm getting to that point anyway.

Well there's definitely something going on - this is a clear indication they don't want to get in.

IMO we need a period of looking at what we've got that we can reform and improve not starting new schemes.

There's no way my 18 year old is doing this.

Not necessarily. There are swing voters and there are people that might not vote at all unless they hear a policy they feel particularly connected to. Considering 35% (or so) of eligible voters do not vote at all, those numbers are enough to sway an entire election.

Both my parents were swing voters all their lives.

They don’t want to get in because they know they’ve fucked the economy and salted the earth to make life difficult/impossible for the incoming government. I hope t6e new government immediately issues a statement about everything they’ve found out and exactly how bad everything is.

Military discipline might do us all good then - I suggest they make it mandatory for everyone, not just teenagers.

Everyone has to give up a year of their life to serve their country in some way.

If it's good for them, it's good for us.

Plenty of folk love the idea of conscription and most of them support Reform. Even Sunak must realise this is a completely implausible idea. It just proves that he has realised the election is lost and the "One Nation" voter base is also lost so he's appealing to the right as his only means of minimising his upcoming defeat.

If military training is so good for people, why do so many former soldiers end up unemployed, homeless, with MH, addiction issues...?

Besides which, even the military don't want conscripts.

As I understand it, 18 year olds would be able to choose conscription or spending one weekend per month doing "service work" such as NHS or police. The vast majority would choose the one weekend a month option. I grew up in Sweden and both my brothers benefitted massively from their military training (girls could not join back then) and I think many kids today would also benefit from doing either option.

On a more light hearted note may I offer them an alternative solution…

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGe4ULPGv/

I've voted tory in the past. This policy just made me roll my eyes. The one that made me think
'Are you fucking high?'
is Rwanda.