Conscription

Pensioners do pay tax in the UK grandtante

Gwenisgreat

When we had National Service, it gave the young men something to fall back on, it gave them training and career possibilities - It was a mistake to abandon that.

What about the young women? I assume would be conscripted too.

I don't know what is the matter with this World. All this aggression and nastiness and in the name of what? Let us just hope for peace - long term. I know I'm dreaming but it scares me that our children and grandchildren may have to do something that is beyond comprehension

I think that National Service did give young men a new experience of life, new skills and people.. it could be used nowdays as a form of Peace training in a variety of work settings and of course include women.. However I would prefer if it was voluntary..

growstuff

Gwenisgreat

When we had National Service, it gave the young men something to fall back on, it gave them training and career possibilities - It was a mistake to abandon that.

What about the young women? I assume would be conscripted too.

What if you identify as a pigeon? Im not joking.
If ( a small if) conscription is started again someone is bound to pull this stroke

As far as conscription goes I doubt if there is any way it would work. Should it be in the social work/caring /support sector there would need to be huge amounts of DBS checks and a system which is already groaning would simply cease to function. In the area of the armed forces I think most people know that it is not the "cannon fodder" that a modern army requires but educated and technologically wise individuals. Most of whom would find a way not to serve. Finally wars need weapons and whilst there may be dangers it is in the interests of arms manufacturer to have places where they can develop and manufacture their goods. That requires a certain degree of stability. They may supply arms to further small and area specific wars. They do not want any war to interfere with arms manufacture and their profits.

Last month the chief of the defence staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, spoke of living in “extraordinarily dangerous times” and asked: “Is the machinery and thinking deep within the British state truly calibrated to the scale of what is unfolding?”

I really admire this man. I’m more concerned now about the prospect of WW3 than I was a couple of weeks ago. We have enjoyed peace on our island for so long I think we perhaps don’t take the early signs seriously enough.

Plus we have taken our eye off the ball with regard to defence spending. Making hay while the sun shines a little too much?

Yes, Sir Tony Radikin is certainly someone to take heed of.

We live in very worrying times.

SueEH, I suppose the gung ho and whole villages joining up is connected to propaganda. Since we no longer have a free press, it would be very easy to manipulate the population.

Sorry, Sir Tony Rad*a*kin

I should know better

He’s 58y. Born in Oldham just up the road from us. Talks a great deal of (measured) sense. If he’s concerned, then I am.

silverlining48

Pensioners do pay tax in the UK grandtante

Only if their income is above the threshold, the same as in Australia, where nanna8 lives.
Pensioners pay tax in Australia too, dependent upon income.

The standard Personal Allowance is £12,570 for all in the UK.

How big an army might we need to defend our allies and ourselves? James Heappey, the Armed Forces minister, has spoken of the need for up to half a million troops, including reservists, to be deployed if Nato were called upon to fight a full-scale land war against Russian aggression.

Yet such numbers have not been seen since national service was abolished in 1960. After the latest round of cuts the Army will have a total strength of only about 70,000 combat troops. The 20,000 personnel who have been committed to Steadfast Defender, the largest Nato military exercise since the Cold War, represent the maximum force that the UK is currently capable of deploying on the front line in Eastern Europe.

cakmib

SueEH, I suppose the gung ho and whole villages joining up is connected to propaganda. Since we no longer have a free press, it would be very easy to manipulate the population.

🤔

I do not think that it would happen in this day and age
Of course it wouldn't, this is not 1914!

Urmstongran

How big an army might we need to defend our allies and ourselves? James Heappey, the Armed Forces minister, has spoken of the need for up to half a million troops, including reservists, to be deployed if Nato were called upon to fight a full-scale land war against Russian aggression.

Yet such numbers have not been seen since national service was abolished in 1960. After the latest round of cuts the Army will have a total strength of only about 70,000 combat troops. The 20,000 personnel who have been committed to Steadfast Defender, the largest Nato military exercise since the Cold War, represent the maximum force that the UK is currently capable of deploying on the front line in Eastern Europe.

I'm old enough to remember years of the Cold War, plus I have visited countries which were previously under the USSR yoke and learned about their fights for freedom.

I don't think NATO is going to be asking for boots on the ground any time soon.

I think if NATO wanted an army then it would be comprised of soldiers from more countries than just the UK.
However I’ve been concerned for some time about the steady dropping of funding to our arms services. This has been going on for years, and yet the first duty of government is to defend the population. There are many areas which need more funding but this is probably the one that needs it first, bearing in mind the situation with Putin. If we know that the government are not funding our armed services properly, he surely does too.

I live in a garrison town and I know how disgusted we were a few years ago when some of our soldiers were made redundant in government cutbacks. Some had just returned from Afghanistan and received their redundancy notice by text!!! What an insult, after risking their lives. Will any of them be offered their jobs back now we need to raise the numbers of recruits?

I wonder if they'd want them, Diggingdoris?

...by that I mean I wonder if they would want their jobs back?

NotSpaghetti

...by that I mean ^I wonder if they would want their jobs back?^

I would be surprised if they did, especially after having done tour of duty in a place like Afghanistan.

Sounds like a good reason for Australia to become a republic. No doubt we would follow like a bunch of lemmings and that’s exactly what it would be - running over the side of a cliff. How would it fit with a country with so many non British migrants who wouldn’t necessarily support a war against their own people? They wouldn’t be able to inter them all, too many.

I don't think there are many migrants of Russian heritage but I await your input.

The world seems so unstable who knows where war will come from.

Yes, it would depend on who the war was with. Assuming Russia, then we certainly have Russian people living in the UK, but I would think not too many. However I don’t actually know what the number is, I’m just assuming not too many.
But we have many Chinese people in Britain so any war with the UK and involving China would be a very different matter.