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!

That would not happen should our country become at a war with another.

I grew up in a country with compulsory military service at 18 (males only) and yes an actual war going on.There wasn't an option to say (or for your mum to say) oh I'm not going. You could (a) defer until the end of your degree if you were at university (b) go to prison, or (c) leave the country. It's interesting seeing people here arguing that they wouldn't let their children go. It doesn't work like that with actual conscription (not saying there will be conscription, it is very very unlikely).

Would that affect you too? Would you be automatically included or would you need to volunteer or demand to be allowed to do it too?

It's just that the vast majority of the people I've experienced who are staunchly in favour of compulsory national service tend to be conveniently too old or otherwise not part of the group that is going to be included.

It's a bit like me saying that, because I live in the Midlands, everybody south of Oxfordshire should pay a 75% basic rate of income tax; or that everybody in Wales and Scotland should be banned from driving, to reduce climate change, and forced to swap their car for a horse.

No - I think long before we got to conscription stakes they would invest in the armed forces and do a massive recruitment drive.

I used to live near a rutal area with a few craters caused by Nazi bombs (and the odd unexploded grenade would be found occasionally).

Apparently they were aiming for the railway lines nearby but they never hit them. Always wondered if the pilots weren't really trying or were just crap shots.

I am late 40’s but I would happily pitch in. I already volunteer and work in public service though, so it’s part of my overall approach.

I think war has changed, so they probably won't need the type of combat you're thinking of. What I do think is we'll need a lot more money to build defences. That will mean higher taxes. I'm a pacifist but seeing the Russian asset and the coup occurring in the US, I'm all for arming Europe.

Only if we were threatened with invasion. Not for some new version of Vietnam.

@OhMaria2 well, neither of those 2 situations are currently applicable.

I agree with this. It's a really archiac mindset too. They wouldn't like it so much if we said we'd fund it from a 2% reduction in state pension, I bet you.

If things come to this - I’d leave this country with my teenage son.

I doubt you’d be allowed.

Sometimes they would drop the bombs randomly if they hadn't managed to drop them on a target. That was in order to lighten the load so reduce fuel consumption on the way back to Germany or where ever.

A lot of schools do CCF. It's right up a lot of teenager's streets and they then know the rudiments of being a soldier and are able to fire a gun and defend themselves if necessary. Almost like National Service.

A lot of the schools that run it are private obviously, although the numbers of British teenagers in the CCF will perhaps reduce as the effects of VAT kick in. But for a teenager that enjoys that sort of thing it's a good template perhaps.

I live in a country with national service and I support it. My DS will have to serve, my DD possibly will (they're considering making it compulsory for women instead of voluntary as it currently is) and that doesn't stop me supporting it. In a war situation I would have to play my part too because we have the doctrine of Total Defence meaning every adult, whether they want to or not, has to participate in national defence (for those who haven't been done their conscription service it'll be non-military tasks of course)

National service is still popular in my country including those who are immediately affected by it, probably even more so now, and there's a very high percentage willing to defend the country. Because we know what happens when Russia comes.

I’m pretty sure that there will be “ways “ to exit. People are leaving war zones / running away from conscription all over the world. It’s not totally impossible.

I suppose it would solve the immigration issue into the UK. Although the young adult males currently coming in would be useful to conscript pretty early on instead of twiddling their thumbs in hotels.

There are no active plans for conscription but of course there is always forward planning for what are options are in times of war.

To be fair, though, suppose they were planning it, do you really think they'd announce it far enough in advance for people to be able to move abroad to avoid it?

I don't recall them giving an extended notice period to the men in Ukraine.

OK, fair enough; but volunteering is a choice that you make for yourself - and presumably you don't give more than you feel you have capacity for, nor join any causes that you don't support or are actually strongly against?

How would you like it if you were forced by law to drop whatever you were doing and do whatever the government decided that you should do 'for the good of the country' and/or because you must personally need the discipline?

It isn't that easy (from post -Brexit Britain) to just "move abroad" these days. You can't just turn up in a country because you feel like it unless you have entitlement to live there for one reason or another. (The exception is of course Ireland).

If national service is so popular, why do they need to make it compulsory in the first place?

Surely they'd have far more people than they could use applying to serve, of their own freewill; and they'd have to be turning lots of them away?!

Bit of a problem, we’re surrounded by sea.

Like in Norway. No longer compulsory and it's a great accolade if you get in.

I'm not saying that it's easy for everybody to move abroad, but plenty of people do manage it - and more would find a way if they felt strongly enough about it; especially if they were willing to move to a less popular (and easier to get into) country for a few years, to avoid having to serve in the military.

It doesn't seem to stop a great deal of people from much poorer countries getting to us, whatever the rights and wrongs of it; so I don't see how a (likely much wealthier and better resourced) British person can't cross that same sea in the opposite direction.