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Teenagers

Parenting teenagers has its ups and downs. Get advice from Mumsnetters here.

Conscription fears for teen son

224 replies

Hazlenuts2016 · 15/12/2025 21:37

Anyone else with a teenage son getting more and more worried about conscription? Just saw this article and found the language scary. It's as if they want us to accept our sons and daughters dying as a sacrifice worth making! I know politicians wouldn't be talking this way because it would cost them votes, but maybe this is what is being explored. Posted this on another recent thread by the way, but then thought it would be better to start a new one.
https://news.sky.com/story/uks-sons-and-daughters-need-to-be-ready-to-fight-amid-growing-russian-threat-says-head-of-armed-forces-13483860?fbclid=IwdGRjcAOtTyBjbGNrA61PBGV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHkoNStuMIR_04jEkekyh8IWQLQSQ2u3II0v-yEkA24TkmjZQF0fjeZ5art6J_aem_obDX_-el5u0dybYW31A3RQ

UK's 'sons and daughters' need to be ready to fight, amid growing Russian threat, says head of armed forces

In an extraordinarily blunt intervention, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton warned that Russia's military strength is increasing and is something to fear, with Russian troops now battle-hardened after spending the past nearly four years waging a f...

https://news.sky.com/story/uks-sons-and-daughters-need-to-be-ready-to-fight-amid-growing-russian-threat-says-head-of-armed-forces-13483860?fbclid=IwdGRjcAOtTyBjbGNrA61PBGV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHkoNStuMIR_04jEkekyh8IWQLQSQ2u3II0v-yEkA24TkmjZQF0fjeZ5art6J_aem_obDX_-el5u0dybYW31A3RQ

OP posts:
Happyjoe · 15/12/2025 23:30

Dappy777 · 15/12/2025 23:00

Who is going to fight to protect a country that is ashamed of its history and has completely lost its identity? It isn't really a country anymore. Immigration has happened on such a massive scale, and in such a short time, that it has been impossible to assimilate those who've arrived. On top of that, the left completely dominate academia, publishing and the arts, and they have done all they can to demonize our national heroes and make us ashamed of our past. Radio 4 can't even mention a writer like Tennyson without linking him to slavery or colonialism. You put those two things together and you've got a dead country. I now live on an island of strangers. Starmer was right about that.

If I was a teenage boy, I'd refuse to fight. I wouldn't be a conscientious objector, I'd just say I don't care. Orwell once wrote that a nation is like a family, with its shared history, shared traumas, shared identity etc. That is no longer the case. When I was young, I knew who I was. I knew my history. I knew about my great grandfather being wounded in WW1 and my grandfather fighting in WW2. I knew who my writers were. My culture was Chaucer and Shakespeare and Jane Austen and Keats and Dickens and Virginia Woolf and Wilfred Owen and so on. As a teenager, for example, when I was getting into poetry, the big two English-British poets were Ted Hughes and Philip Larkin. Both criticised and mocked Britain, but both were deeply rooted in British history and literature. Beneath it all you knew they saw themselves as British and felt part of a long tradition of English-British poets dating back a thousand years. That has all gone. In the last few years I've found myself re-watching old TV shows like Colditz and old films like Bridge on the River Kwai. One day, I realized why. Because I am desperately clinging on to an identity and culture that has been taken away from me.

I'm not interested in debating all this with anyone. All you Mumsnet lefties and 'progressives' have won. There is no going back. But don't you f-ing DARE tell me I have to help you defend this overcrowded, self-hating dump. I won't even bother to watch England in next year's world cup, so I certainly won't be involved in any fighting. The left have got what they wanted. They've imposed a new identity on me, and THEY CAN GO AND FIGHT FOR IT!

Twaddle.

selffellatingouroborosofhate · 15/12/2025 23:31

Bungle2168 · 15/12/2025 23:17

Fair’s fair. Women have campaigned for equality, and that means doing the crap that men do too. Anything else is cherry picking and special pleading. Now, feminism was not about that, surely…?

Edited

When men do the childbirth at an equal rate to women, you'll have a point. Until then, the ability to repopulate the country after a war trumps notions of fairness between the sexes.

A man can sire 100 children at once via artificial insemination of 100 women. He can sire a child after he's dead by freezing his sperm.

A woman rarely births more than one child at a time, and it takes her nine months to do it. And she has to be alive and healthy throughout those nine months.

It's purely a matter of time and numbers.

Happyjoe · 15/12/2025 23:32

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Another twaddle post.

Happyjoe · 15/12/2025 23:34

FableLies · 15/12/2025 23:11

Why don't they conscript middle aged people? Or do they? I'd rather me than my daughter. It's not just the other side young women have to worry about, but those on their own side.

They probably would and have done so before. Anyone who is fighting fit, no?

StandingSideBySide · 15/12/2025 23:38

selffellatingouroborosofhate · 15/12/2025 23:31

When men do the childbirth at an equal rate to women, you'll have a point. Until then, the ability to repopulate the country after a war trumps notions of fairness between the sexes.

A man can sire 100 children at once via artificial insemination of 100 women. He can sire a child after he's dead by freezing his sperm.

A woman rarely births more than one child at a time, and it takes her nine months to do it. And she has to be alive and healthy throughout those nine months.

It's purely a matter of time and numbers.

Edited

I disagree
Women will be treated as equals if it comes to conscription
The country can’t do anything else to keep within our laws

GaIadriel · 15/12/2025 23:42

Thing is, the British public and a lot of other western countries have become pretty soft in the last century. Likely more so than countries that have mandatory national service.

I remember my Swedish mate telling me about national service. My Croatian mate remembers being told to run home from school and not stop. Said there were hand grenades being thrown into the street etc.

Even without having seen full blown war in their lifetimes, there are plenty of people in other countries that have lived with the threat of war looming, or at least have some idea of how to act from their period of national service - handling weapons, working as a squad etc.

Many Brits, on the other hand, can't imagine anything worse than lockdown. I think it's unlikely that we'd be fighting on the beaches, but if China got involved at some point in the coming decades we could be in big trouble.

The US are always overconfident but they couldn't win the Afghanistan war after almost 20 years of trying. I'm not sure sheer scale of resources are the be all and end all. Russia were still somehow outproducing the whole of NATO in terms of ammunition until about a month ago and are also way ahead in terms of general missile tech, as are China. They also have more nukes and we currently don't have a defence against their subsonic missiles like the Oreshnik.

We do have advantages in other areas like aircraft but people that confidently state NATO are unstoppable are fools. For starters, most countries haven't seen a war for decades so it's all hypothetical. Russia are battle hardened and can actually provably fight. And you can't ignore the fact that millions of Chinese people will happily step up and fight whilst half our population won't.

wonderstuff · 15/12/2025 23:42

I don’t think facism, which is undoubtedly taking root in European politics does well in peace. I think it’s more likely we’ll see another Cold War than battles in western Europe, but the Cold War had hot spot and we may well see a call to arms. It’s very scary. I think conscription is unlikely, but not impossible. I certainly think we’re likely to see a decline in living standards as we move resources to fund an increased army and security.

StandingSideBySide · 15/12/2025 23:44

THisbackwithavengeance · 15/12/2025 23:01

If enemy troops invaded the UK and Russian soldiers were bombing and attacking your town, would you not expect the males in your family to fight? I’ll be there in the resistance myself.

If the enemy was at our door we’d all fight….surely?
I wouldn't be waiting around hiding somewhere ( and we have a great priests hole) hoping others do it for me

We actually have a snipers wall in our front garden from WW2. I’ll be behind that shooting.

GaIadriel · 15/12/2025 23:54

wonderstuff · 15/12/2025 23:42

I don’t think facism, which is undoubtedly taking root in European politics does well in peace. I think it’s more likely we’ll see another Cold War than battles in western Europe, but the Cold War had hot spot and we may well see a call to arms. It’s very scary. I think conscription is unlikely, but not impossible. I certainly think we’re likely to see a decline in living standards as we move resources to fund an increased army and security.

What are you defining facism as? People that want to stop the boats or stuff like neo nazism?

I think a lot of people have their heads buried in the sand nowadays. There are much worse forces out there than Nigel Farage and his cronies.

Happyjoe · 15/12/2025 23:54

Hopefully have a fair sized bunch of volunteers with all the UK patriots who go around painting roundabouts with a red cross, hanging up flags and shouting at hotels. They love the UK and are protecting it, as keep hearing.

Sorted.

somenerves · 15/12/2025 23:56

When you think about the people of Ukraine and what they have been doing to defend their country since 2022, I think some of the replies on here are not understanding what invasion would be like.

I would be proud to fight for my country if that was required, as would my husband. Rather that than roll over for invading forces.

Flowerslamp · 16/12/2025 00:00

I don't think it will happen, but is am bothered by all the it won't be my son people.

If conscription was deemed necessary, we'd all be in a most dire situation. If your son's not going to do it, whose sons do you think will? Or are we just going to sit back and let whatever happen?

somenerves · 16/12/2025 00:01

Damnd · 15/12/2025 22:02

Won't be just the sons though or the feminists will riot, you would think.. 🤔

Women were conscripted in WW2.

Pavementworrier · 16/12/2025 00:02

I wouldn't worry, the chances of getting the "you can't make me, I'm ND and have anxiety" generation to go to war even under threat of imprisonment is zilch.

(I mean this as a good thing, fuck dying for the ruling classes' pet projects - I love Poland but I'm not dying to stop Vladimir Putin being in charge of it)

GaIadriel · 16/12/2025 00:06

Happyjoe · 15/12/2025 23:54

Hopefully have a fair sized bunch of volunteers with all the UK patriots who go around painting roundabouts with a red cross, hanging up flags and shouting at hotels. They love the UK and are protecting it, as keep hearing.

Sorted.

Problem with this country is that far too many people are completely blinkered and tied up with this gammons vs woke lefties nonsense. But even the most gammoning Mail reader is nothing compared to the Kim Jongs of this world.

It's easy to think we live in a more enlightened age than the times of the Holocaust but if we ever faced some kind of occupation I reckon things could get ugly pretty quickly. The leaders are likely more interested in power and territory than any sadistic treatment of the general populace but I'm also not sure how committed people like Putin, Kim Jong, and the Chinese government would be in stamping out war crimes/rapes etc.

In the unlikely event we need to fight I think it would probs be very much in our best interest that we did so tooth and claw so to speak. I don't think other cultures will show us one fraction of the tolerance and empathy we pride ourselves in having for other demographics.

Flowerslamp · 16/12/2025 00:06

ExitViaGiftShop · 15/12/2025 23:08

Completely agree. Pity they don’t spend the 3 billion they have ear marked for when they lift the child benefit cap, on expanding the military.

They can fuck off.

You realise expanding the military depends on people's sons and daughters being prepared to go?

Honeycottage · 16/12/2025 00:08

Men & women will fight equally in the wars of the future. What did think was happened when we backed Ukraine? War in Europe is inevitable! The UK will be begging Trump & his successors for weapons & support once again. Perhaps think about a pragmatic vote before taking the moral high ground.

GaIadriel · 16/12/2025 00:09

For better or worse, I do think it's more likely that the flag mongers would actually step up and fight than many on the left would.

WittyJadeStork · 16/12/2025 00:10

I think most people will fight simply because the alternative will be so much worse. In ww2 women were conscripted to munition factories, land army or the services although not fighting. I think Ukraine has conscripted all men under 60. If the UK had conscription not all roles will be combat roles, there’s a lot of logistics and god knows what else to keep the fighting part of an army fighting. Some men were conscripted to the coal mines in ww2

Pavementworrier · 16/12/2025 00:12

WittyJadeStork · 16/12/2025 00:10

I think most people will fight simply because the alternative will be so much worse. In ww2 women were conscripted to munition factories, land army or the services although not fighting. I think Ukraine has conscripted all men under 60. If the UK had conscription not all roles will be combat roles, there’s a lot of logistics and god knows what else to keep the fighting part of an army fighting. Some men were conscripted to the coal mines in ww2

Why would it be worse than just not fighting? There's no prospect of invasion in the UK.

Fernsrus · 16/12/2025 00:14

@IndigoIsMyFavouriteColouri agree.

GaIadriel · 16/12/2025 00:18

somenerves · 15/12/2025 23:56

When you think about the people of Ukraine and what they have been doing to defend their country since 2022, I think some of the replies on here are not understanding what invasion would be like.

I would be proud to fight for my country if that was required, as would my husband. Rather that than roll over for invading forces.

People keep using the word 'they' as if it's just the government that will be at war. I don't know if it's naivety or just a weird coping mechanism.

"They can get to fuck. I'm not defending my home and family" is a weird outlook. It's a bit like saying "my employer said they're making me redundant. They can get to fuck! I won't be getting involved in that." 🤣

Pavementworrier · 16/12/2025 00:21

GaIadriel · 16/12/2025 00:18

People keep using the word 'they' as if it's just the government that will be at war. I don't know if it's naivety or just a weird coping mechanism.

"They can get to fuck. I'm not defending my home and family" is a weird outlook. It's a bit like saying "my employer said they're making me redundant. They can get to fuck! I won't be getting involved in that." 🤣

But that's the point. You'd have to be daft to think this is about protecting YOUR home. It's about protecting the vested interests of billionaires who are happy to see you freeze when the gas gets cut off and would be happy to watch you cannibalise your gran.

I don't feel patriotism (I agree with pp that the idea has been socialised out of most Brits) and we haven't been World Police in a good while.

That said, as COVID, Ukraine and Gaza show, people can be manipulated into a massive fever over anything

FFSToEverythingSince2020 · 16/12/2025 00:30

BigMommasHouse · 15/12/2025 22:59

A modern army is made up
of motivated professionals. Conscripts would be worse than useless. They would have no use for a bunch of unskilled, unmotivated teenagers. They have nothing to offer.

A modern war would be nuclear, biological, drones or digital. We would probably just be irradiated, poisoned, infected or microwaved and wouldn’t know much about it. It would be worse to survive than die in it.

When things like this appear in the press it is always political.

I was going to comment, but this pretty much says it all. I couldn’t agree more.

I made the point in another thread that it is the poor who bear the brunt of voluntary military service, and they’ll bear more from conscription too, whereas the rich will find some way to keep their children safe, just like they always have in the past. Stats support this: we’re one of the few countries that allows 16 year olds to enlist, and that’s apparently the most popular age to join the Army. Not only that, but the poorest fifth of the population is 57% more likely to join the Army at ages 16 or 17, versus the richest fifth of society. Very decent article (with the stats I shared) about poverty as conscription: https://www.forceswatch.net/resources/conscription-by-poverty-deprivation-and-army-recruitment-in-the-uk/

GaIadriel · 16/12/2025 00:32

I love Poland but I'm not dying to stop Vladimir Putin being in charge of it.

A divided Europe is no match for powers like China and Russia. We only stand a chance of surviving into the future if we stand together.

So either you're expecting somebody else to do it on your behalf or you're happy to accept former allies looking the other way when your sons/husbands are being executed and daughters being gang raped.

Hyperbolic of course but these things happen in countries not too far away from us. What keeps us safe is our strategic allegiances and our readiness to back each other up when needed.

As they say "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”