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??

Why not the mums and dad, and grandparents too? These are the people bringing up the teenagers.

maybe we need a catch up program.

Yes it's this.
I live in the North and there seems to be a lot people on my local FB groups saying they are going to voting reform. The local Tory candidate has jumped ship to Reform.
These people also support Brexit and go on about illegal immigrants all the time.

Is 35 considerd young? I have a friend who agrees with it (and leans tory) and he is 35 (though he thinks Britain is terrible at big projects so it would probably be a disaster). Like me his parents were also conscripted.

I think there's likely to be quite a big crossover between this demographic and Tory voters, tbh!

Oh and "Get rid of wokeness" seems to be a reason. Drill and march it out of them so they have no opinions of their own.

I do think they want to lose

This 100%

The funding for this comes out of the levelling up budget. Maybe spend some of that money on levelling up projects. Or why not pour money into improving failing schools, creating Surestart centres to teach decent parenting skills, youth centres with careers advice, mentoring, literacy skills in youth offending centres and prisons, more social workers and probation officers ? How will this help middle class kids who’ve already benefited from a stable family life ?

It’s a tactical move

it’s keeping Labour off the front pages and many will agree with the idea of young people getting involved in community work

there shall be another radical idea next week

The Tories have had plenty of time to get rid of wokeness. Done nothing even about the things that would have widespread support, such as fairness in competitive sport.

And yet if labour come up with radical ideas they are roundly slated…

It's probably targeted at the older Tory voter who never had to conscript or go to war themselves but have a very low opinion of the younger generations.

But yeah I won't be voting for anything that risks my child going to war without their consent.

Maybe because the parents and grandparents haven’t been brought up during Covid with the knock-on effects, or brought up with damaging technology and social media in the same way? We all remember pretty tech free childhoods without all the pressure, porn and bullying relating to that.

Did you even read the policy though? It’s military OR community service. Eg no war risk

This is like when I heard about sending asylum seekers to Rwanda and assumed it was a joke because it sounded so comic-book level evil. How out of touch with the modern electorate.

And let's be honest, it will end up like school work experience. You'll be left to sort out your own "volunteering" placement, and if you can't do that then they'll force you into the shit option. So those with connections will either do the easiest "volunteering" possibly or just have daddy's mates sign to pretend they even turned up. And everyone else will be slogging away in the army, or industries like social care that can't hire paid employees because the conditions are so shit.

I agree…On this and also calling an election this soon

Lazy of who? Me? Age is how think tanks and political surveyors segregate voter demographics in order to target campaigning. It’s literally how politicians understand a mass of the voting population at once.

You might not be impressed by 60%, but that’s double the leave vote among the 18-44 age group demographic which came in, on average, at 30%. So to a campaigning politician that’s incredibly significant.

Reform voters (another demographic who this policy is intended to appeal to) also make up 21% of the 65+ population, compared to 4% of 18-50yr olds. Again, hugely statistically significant for target campaigning.

Perhaps try to refrain from being perpetually offended and realise that age demographics are how political campaigns are crafted whether you agree with it or not.

Doesn't really matter what it is, I don't believe in any part of the population being forced into doing something like this.

Life is already tough for today's young people. They went through the pandemic at a vulnerable age, costs of living (especially housing) are huge. Mental health difficulties are already high, not helped by great difficulty accessing any NHS support for teens. They've just been through a rigid and dull education system and at 18 are still going to largely require further education or training to be able to find a job/career.

By all means implement something voluntary with certification/qualification at the end but there should be no forcing young people to do these things that pretty much nobody in living memory has had to do.

How is it boomer bashing to understand how politicians divide up voting demographics? You can understand statistics and how they are used without subscribing to stereotypes. If you don’t like it take it up with think tanks that gather and organise this data to supply the political party they are serving.

It’s absolute rubbish and just dog whistle stuff. Let’s make it self selecting. Those who vote for it can send their families children into this. If it’s such a good idea then they will be happy about it.

The hypocrisy of older people voting for this stuff would really gall me where I 18. They have never had to any kind of compulsion and I’d say if there are problems sufficient that national service is the answer that is not on the young but on older voters who have supported the Conservatives. Who made tue mess? It was not 18 year olds.

Old people who like national service should be deemed fit to do it themselves.

It'll attract the Reform voters. I have a nasty feeling there's more of them than expected.

The army don't want it

They've capped it at 30k to the army the rest to volunteering something like one weekend in four

So it's not even national service.

It's just to grab headlines.

Like Rwanda. Be interested to see how the polls go - not many people remember national service. Even my mum at 78 is too young.

I think he wants out, and this is all a ploy to make sure they lose the election.

Plenty of people in other countries do this currently.

MN is so funny. If the papers had run this as a “community volunteer scheme” to encourage the youth and their MH, and labour was in charge of it; everyone would be eating it up!