Would you support National Service?

Most young people have been educated to a much higher level now than during the last conscription. They are not afraid of questioning authority and I doubt they would be willing to be subjected to national service. It's not because they are weak cowards but because they would rather use their education in a better way.

No. I wouldn't support this idea Sago

In a militray emergency National Service could be reintroduced.

Like the Oxford students who passed a motion that 'This House will under no circumstances fight for its King and country' in 1933, yet then queued to join up when danger really threatened, I believe that our own young people would do exactly the same now.

Too many old people on here behaving like old people through the ages, criticising and running young people down because they are not just like them.

nanna8

No - would you want some of those nohopers representing your country? Best that they are people who actually want to serve and feel proud of their country!

No hopers 🤦🏼‍♀️
You’ve often mentioned your spirituality, your baptism etc etc.
Not a very Christian outlook is it?

We have a seriously under strength standing Army and Lord help us if we are ever faced with needing to provide extra manpower in a military emergency.

Yes, I wish the media wouldn't keep advertising this to all and sundry in what is a worrying world. And now after the Budget pointing out that we are not funding defence properly.

National Service is for wartime and immediate afterwards and if we are in that situation again it should be for all young people regardless of sex or gender.

It is not, and never has been, a means of making sure that young men stand straight and have a tidy haircut.

I could have written your post, Karma. Both my DH and my son were career servicemen and neither of them thought that National Service would work these days. Young people are not as biddable as they were in the fifties. I know of two cases where the harsh discipline imposed on National Servicemen resulted in a mental health breakdown in one case, and a suicide in the other. We have a seriously under strength standing Army and Lord help us if we are ever faced with needing to provide extra manpower in a military emergency.

The forces are very seriously underfunded, especially the army. One person is having to do the work of five, hence personnel are very stressed and they are leaving the army in droves. There will not be any national service

The army has been run into the ground. There are many good ex-soldiers who might go back if conditions and pay improved a lot and they are the ones who should be brought in. It is ridiculous to expect the forces to take on the parental role, that has been missing in so many lives for the past years.

My dd is ex army major, married to another ex army officer. They loved the army and ethos but the underfunding is very serious and has a huge impact on UK defence

When the UK last had compulsory military NS there were garrisons all over the world. What would a new generation of soldiers do? Is there any point in training them up only for 99% of them to leave as soon as their time is up? That would waste the time and (stretched) resources of those who have to train them.

The forces would do better to attract recruits who want to serve, rather than pressganging a generation that suffered disproportionately during Covid and in most cases will have no desire to join up. It makes no sense to on the one hand refuse usual entry channels to, for instance, people with tattoos, and then coerce them into joining on the other. Would tattooed young people who decided they did want a career in the services after NI be turned away, or their progression limited? Daft rules like that need to be sorted out if the forces want to recruit willing soldiers (who are, as the saying goes, each worth ten pressed men).

No - would you want some of those nohopers representing your country? Best that they are people who actually want to serve and feel proud of their country!

Discipline, exercise and obeying orders should start in the home....as the responsibility of parents. Waiting until the age of 18 to lick them into shape is too late.

No I don’t agree either

I also think your husband is very wrong about the average youth not lasting a minute Sago I bet your husband wouldn’t last a minute in the job one of my grandsons does

Apart from anything else - given the likely second round of austerity this government is going to impose on the country - how could we afford it?

No. Definitely not military service, and I wouldn’t like to see people drafted in to take the jobs that are currently bringing in wages for those who have them, or reduce their rates of pay.

I see no harm in a scheme of voluntary service of some sort that could make up the pension contributions of the unwaged, or pay down student debt, that sort of thing, but it shouldn’t be just for young people. It would probably cost a lot to administrate though.

No

No

Terrible, terrible idea.

I’m not sure it would work these days.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to have some sort of a scheme whereby young people took part in voluntary schemes, with a range of options as where they could work.

No, I think it’s a terrible idea.

Sorry 18-25!