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??

Most of those eighteen year olds will be 'volunteering' to mow verges, and work in care homes etc. so that's a saving.

They get dragged into county lines in primary school, when they are still under the age of criminal responsibility.

If that’s your target, we need to cart year 5s off for military training, by the time they are 18 that ship has well and truly sailed.

It's another gimmick, he is out of sensible ideas & is now having to fall back on outlandish ones, instead of doing something sensible like bringing back youth clubs & the Youth Service. Though I must say it is focusing the minds of some voters who have children coming up to 18 who were thinking of voting Tory.

Yes many young people do need sorting out but given the track record of young men going into the army, and the ending up unable to cope with life after it.

I don't think pushing more damaged young men into the army is the right thing to do.

It makes far more sense to actually invest in social services for young people, inc in schools and camhs. Make sure children who end up in care or who don't have the best home life get a decent education and if that means more 1:1 time with teachers and teaching assistants so be it. And make sure they are properly cared for if they are unfortunate to end up in core homes.

Why aren't they suggesting bringing back the Youth Service & Youth Clubs? The Youth Service used to do some amazing work keeping kids off the streets & out of trouble. I went to a brilliant Youth club run on the same site as the school I went to, the Youth workers worked so hard running the club, it gave us somewhere to go instead of hanging about on the streets, we had a disco, a coffee bar, loads of activities, went on trips, were involved in the local community, played sports. There were so many kids who would otherwise have ended up in trouble, the staff helped many kids who were in trouble get back on the right path, were someone who would listen without judging who you always knew you could talk to if needed. The club opened during the day for the unemployed, held advice sessions on benefits, housing, health issues & was somewhere to go during the day instead of laying in bed or watching television all day, they ran sessions for girls only, teenage mums & babies, did things like cooking, painting & decorating, learning to be a dj, making clothes, helped out with getting clothing for job interviews or doing mock interviews. Then Margaret Thatcher disbanded the youth service & shut all the youth clubs down, leaving hundreds of thousands of kids with nothing to do & nowhere to go.

@Nat6999 quite but it’s somebody getting something for nothing ie companies getting free labour. Which is the Tory way. Probably get serco or capita involved 😂

Has anyone seen where the money is coming from for this? Then media was reporting that part was being diverted from "Leveling Up", and part from a fund for investigating tax fraud!
I don't have a reference, as DH was reading it out to me as I was driving.

The more disturbing idea is he is recruiting cannon fodder for if or when Putin kicks off.

@Nat6999 I assumed an exaggeration re: R talking abt real danger in next 5 years & Cuban missile crisis flash points etc. Could it be war looming a way to get back into power/a tactic? Thatcher & Falklands come to mind.

Yeah, almost as ridiculous as his Eat Out to Help Out idea!

"Rishi Sunak’s national service pledge is ‘bonkers’, says ex-military chief" (the Guardian).

That’s an interesting idea! Can we conscript all private dentists to work for the NHS one weekend per month? Voluntarily of course but this must be a mandatory service. And because it’s not military we don’t have to pay them…
it will do good to them to get out of their private bubble.

@pizzaHeart
Yes but dentists need to go to university (and more likely to vote labour at least while there).

Everyone I know who is ex services has voted Tory... it's the indoctrination.

I was thinking more about older dentists. Why stop at 18 y.o? Older people can contribute to society as well.

@OutOfTheHouse So deal with them and leave my fucking children alone.

France has a very similar watered down version of National service Macron introduced in 2021.
So I’m not surprised by Sunaks policy suggestion.

Its not a vote winner.
Maybe he thinks it will pull in some Reform voters or those undecided.

If Putin kicks off they’ll just bomb us.

As an aside
It’s young people
men and women.

Theres no mention of just men.

I said young men because I was because its more young men with tough backgrounds going into the army, to escape, then getting PTSD. Then ending up homeless, living on the streets and often addicted to alcohol after coming out the army.

I don't think it's so much an issue with women. But them women with problems at home probably don't choose the army as their escape route.

Bottom line kids in care need better support. And the army needs to support its veterans much better.

Forcing young people into military service is not exactly going to help anyone

Apologies I thought when you said pushing more damaged men into the army you were referring to NS.
My mistake

If you can come up with funds to pay them. Labour put a ceiling on NHS funding so there is no extra money to bring dentists back into the NHS. The funding currently available is not enough to provide much more that a core service at best. Not dissimilar to state education.
If everyone volunteered to do one day a week for free in public sector we would be in a far better position.
Cant see it being popular though

@TheStickySweethearts and @pizzaHeart
And all those interested in dentists.

Heres proposals for Labour and Conservative. If this source ie inews is biased one way or the other I’m afraid I have no idea about that. I think it reads quite farely and compares the two policies.

(ps I can’t link the article, I don’t know why )

Just what we want. 18 year olds who are being forced to volunteer in care homes with very vulnerable elderly or disabled residents. It would be a disaster.

Like all rules and regulations governments make to target specific people they want to stop doing what they are doing. No one thinks what harm it could do those who weren’t doing anything wrong in the first place

This is not going to affect county line drugs gangs, they will still be there but with younger children and the young people who did have plans that were time specific are going to end up losing out.

If Rishi wanted to do something for young people he would do better by bringing in careers advisors

ExDh went to a boarding school that at some point brought in professional careers advisors each year
For a week his year were given loads of multiple choice questionnaires and interviews and at the end their parents were informed of the results

One of his classmates was told he should pursue a certain career. It was so out of left field that he specifically remembers this boys incredulity and everyone being in fits of laughter as they knew their friend

Fast forward a few decades and this boy is now top of the field in the career that these careers advisors said he should pursue. Infact the ones who did follow these chosen careers that exh knew about have all become very successful

Exdh’s parents otoh didn’t agree with DH’s results and lied to him
Dh pursued a career that he never fitted into. He struggled and work was hard and boring

It was years later when pil downsized and they sent exh a bundle of stuff from his boarding school days that I found the letter that was sent detailing exh’s results that he should pursue a career in something I could immediately see was what Exh would have found really enjoyable but wasn’t something his parents would have approved of.
If we could do something like that for every young person it would make this country incredibly successful and would give young people a goal and in turn tap into the talent that this country is wasting

If young people have goals and are happy they are less likely to join gangs or get involved with drugs or criminal activity