Does anyone think there's a real chance of conscription?

[4babycubsx]

I keep hearing the word bandied around and it's starting to turn me into a conspiracy theorist! I have two boys of 'fighting age' (I've two girls too but I assume they won't be first) I don't want any of my children to be sent to war especially someone else's war! You can bet your life Starmers kids won't be sent!

In that case - being a medic for example or distributing food to civilians - fine. Something like making weapons components I would not do.

That's what I thought.

However they said there were documents saying Nazi seriously thought they could start a class war to their benefit and some in UK government thought similar - it was a reputable documentary company and TV channel - it's why it stuck with me as odd fact.

I don't think military conscription is likely, but maybe National Service would be a good idea.

If (and again, I think it's unlikely) things reached the point where there were conscripts actually fighting, I can't see anyone getting away with conscientious objection easily. Who is going to sit back and see their kids slaughtered when the neighbours are picking and choosing what they fancy doing? By the time it reached that point, however, we would all be on the front line, as the fighting would be in the streets.

I doubt it would happen. And no,of course Starmer's kids wouldn't get called up, even if it DID happen,the same as Rishi Sunak's kids wouldn't have been called up to do National Service,if he had been able to proceed with the scheme.

No. We can't even get children to behave at school, no chance you'd get them going to war unless they wanted to. They may offer a high wage as incentive, but we're past the level of public control to enforce it.

No but if there was, they surely would have to treat men and women the same? A female life is not more important than a male.

What do you mean? That our conscripted fathers and grandfathers were not ‘aware’?!

Good grief. How disrespectful.

Quite a lot of confusion on this thread,mostly caused by the media which is politically driven.
There are no active plans for conscription but of course there is always forward planning for what are options are in times of war.

First into action will be the regulars. That's their job. But trained strength across all 3 services is low -frighteningly so in the case of the Army, so expect a big recruitment push. Then come the Reserves. Again,numbers are low with poor retention but they are trained and we have our first full Reserve Brigade stood up.
Next would be the Strategic Reserve. These are Veterans who can be recalled even after they have left service. Possibly no longer physically fit for the front line but deployable in logistics,clerical,planning,project management, cyber etc etc.

So, don't lie awake worrying about forced service. Better a volunteer than a pressed man any day!

The funny thing about war is that once it is declared against your country, that will change your attitude towards things like conscription.

Keir Starmer mentioning boots on the ground is talking about a peacekeeping force, not an active hot war, so all this is just conspiracy theory and conjecture about a future possible situation that does not exist today.

I think though the times we live in are a wake up call that this country needs armed forces, and money needs to be invested there after all the decimation done by the tories over the past 14 years.

Yup, when your own country is at stake then people will have very different attitudes. I doubt there will be many still objecting when the enemy is an hour away from your home and advancing.

Maybe all the bedroom gamers could be retrained to fly drones

Yes.
About 3 years ago there was a collection of some sort going on in a supermarket car park, for Ukraine, and I confess that I did tell one of the organisers that I'd be willing to press a button to send a bomb-carrying drone to land on the Kremlin.

If we go to war and it becomes a ‘fighting on all fronts’ world kind of war, yes. The Army is understaffed as it is and while the soldiers are trained, it won’t take long in actual combat before the initial drive for sign ups is exhausted and we need to turn to conscription.

But it’s unlikely we’re heading into a world war any time soon and we should be good to cope until we do.

I know those things happened but no-one has answered my question about when these things were promised.

If you were moving your way across the Sahara with your unit in 1943 I doubt if you kept fighting because you'd been promised an NHS or a welfare state. It was a damn long way to get home if you deserted so you stuck in there with your mates because you somehow felt you had a cause in common with others and you knew if you survived the day you'd get food and maybe a beer.

I wouldn't be so sure that PMs' and MPs' children wouldn't be called up.

See my earlier post.
These things were promised by the coalition government whilst the war was still on going in a series of white papers.

But that's not the point, when you're in the army you continue to fight until you're either dead or discharged. To do otherwise is classed in the 40s resulted in prison and dishonourable discharge.

It won’t happen for a number of reasons.

But saying ‘my kids won’t be going..’ - well, they would because it would be the law. And you’d be arrested for interfering.

Finally! What a relief to see this post.

Thank you for 'promised by the coalition government whilst the war was still on-going'.

I do think about it. But times have changed, would you tolerate your boys being drafted to fight for Ukraine? I wouldn'tand i think others would be the same from what ive read online. I don't think they'd want to deal with that on a large scale whilst fighting Russia if the situation was so dire that they needed a draft in the first place.

What would ‘not tolerating your child being conscripted’ look like though? They would be ordered to fight, with no choice in the matter. You would have no power to stop it. I have a son (and a daughter) and don’t want bloody WW3 but let’s get real.

When I was a teenager I was told that Chamberlain went to Where-ever-it-was and came back and 'waved a bit of paper at us and said, "Peace in our time."'

A couple of decades later I heard someone point out that 1938 was only 20 short years after 1918, and Chamberlain could remember the carnage of WW1 and so maybe we could understand why he desperately didn't want to take us into another war. Poor man. What a hell of a responsibility, to declare war on a Sunday morning in September.

If conscription was to return because we were going to be attacked here in the UK ( and that's the only reason it would be to be honest) how would you stop your sons being conscripted?
For one they'd be of an age to decide for themselves, and secondly you'd be in trouble with the law. It won't be up to you.
It is really unlikely to happen though.

Mass civil disobedience. You get real.

That would be very unlikely. I think there would be a huge and innate desire to stand up and get involved.