[News] Should we Bring Back National Service? Sunak says YES.

[BadFish]

Bonkers - but never having done it themselves is irrelevant. Too many lawyers would get very rich and wreck the country - just before heading off to tax havens - protecting the human rights of stroppy entitled teenagers who didn't like the word 'must'.

Equally bonkers. Really, it should never even have been given to 18 year olds - 21 is quite old enough (or young enough) to vote.

And if Brexit taught us anything that right should be taken away at 60.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

18 to 24 yr olds don't vote tory in huge numbers.

This is aimed at the 45 plus reform UK vote.

What is in the small print is that this (the 2.5bn it's expected to cost) will be funded from the sovereign prosperity fund which was previously earmarked for the levelling up agenda.

The military service part is bonkers enough (the military themselves don't support it) but the 25 days community service is dreamt up by someone who has never tried to organise a group of teenagers to do work experience.

But laura k has said this is the 1st big policy idea of the campaign and hasn't even tried to spot these items. (As for 1st big policy idea, coming on the same day as labour stated they wanted to give 16 and 17 yr olds the vote, is stretching it somewhat)

It has been suggested elsewhere that Laura K has lost her balanced approach and even-handedness and has become a strange doe-eyed sunk-buddy. Is this the case?

 

[BadFish]

We need to instill more national pride in them too. We're going to need some more flags, lots of flags.

 

[macbeth]

Bonkers - but never having done it themselves is irrelevant. Too many lawyers would get very rich and wreck the country - just before heading off to tax havens - protecting the human rights of stroppy entitled teenagers who didn't like the word 'must'.

Equally bonkers. Really, it should never even have been given to 18 year olds - 21 is quite old enough (or young enough) to vote.

yes it is relevant. why should today’s 18 year olds be gleefully volunteered for national service by older generations that said generations haven’t had to do it themselves? is it because they’re ‘stroppy and entitled’ and more lacking in disciple or whatever than their elders? that narrative, which is the narrative that the tories are angling towards with this policy, whether they openly say it or not, is absolute bollocks. show me the evidence that says today’s teenagers are any more entitled than those of previous generations

 

[HeaviestTed]

“Once more into the breach we go boys…here are your bottle tops…god save Charles….”

 

[jcdenton08]

There's no intention of it actually happening. He's just shoring up the irrational hate filled gammon vote to make the result less embarrassing.

Absolutely this 100%.

 

[The Clamp]

In principal and done properly, I’m not immediately opposed to some form of civic service. However, Sunak has gone f***ing mental.

 

[sydney]

It's a complex meddly of dickheads.

You're spot on, but you need other dickheads to fall for it . . . Someone suggested recently, the tories will run away with 15 years of carnage left behind, and give Labour ( or whoever) 15 weeks to fix the lot, before sticking the knives back in . . .

i'm not sure the country can be fixed to be honest , it has been bankrupted by blatant rinsing and political idiocy , it's a mess.

 

[Blue3]

Desperate act to win back to the foaming at the mouth Reform UK voter support this really is the final death screams of this Conservative government, the opposition needs to do and say nothing for the next six weeks just sit and watch this Tory self destruct show

 

[Mr deez]

Utter bullshit - as if youngsters are the problem...

Given the Tories have driven out the international workforce we rely on we also need these people working not being sent away on a gammon training course.

 

[Auckland seagull]

Gammon seems a popular word on this thread. I'll vote for bacon myself.

 

[Hamilton]

But it only costs £2.5billion a year!

Money we don’t have the Tories have consistently claimed.

But hang on. There’s 720,000 18-year-olds in the UK, so that’s £3,500 per head.

The Tories were claiming that there were 100,000 asylum seekers in the Uk costing us £4,300 a month per head to house (treat these figures with care.)

So, I’m failing to see how we are going to offer all our 18-year-olds access to a scheme for the pipe dream amounts he mentions.

He is making this up as he goes along.

Perhaps instead spend the money on vocational courses young people need, and scrap zero hours contracts, and make housing more affordable, and maybe give young people access to work across Europe again.

 

[Hamilton]

I agree.

Some of the elements of Sunak’s proposal are potentially something worth considering but any form of compulsory scheme, whether it be military service or community is surely an own goal as far as this Election?



I think there is a strong argument for 18 year olds having the right to vote if they are old enough to die for their Country.

I don’t know about 16-18 year olds - it would be interesting to do a poll of that age group on Sunak’s National Service proposals. In fact why not make the National Service schemes purely voluntary and let 18 year olds decide for themselves how they want to spend a gap year. Or give them a referendum -

I just think they should have the choice.

You are right.

Mandatory is entirely wrong.

If they want to sent up a scheme linked to some form of vocational qualification, that’s different. But as you and I know, Sunak has no idea. He’s literally woken up this morning and thought, “what can I make up now.”

It’s not even been costed for properly.

 

[Deportivo Seagull]

It would destroy an already over stretch badly funded military. What a biblically stupid idea.

 

[TomandJerry]

Sounds more like a Dad's Army thing....

Rishi Sunak has announced that a future Conservative government would bring back mandatory national service, as he attempted to reignite his election campaign after an error-strewn start.

Under the plan, which appeared to be his latest attempt to reduce Tory losses by winning over voters drifting to Reform UK, the prime minister late Saturday said that every 18-year-old would have to spend time in a competitive, full-time military commission or spend one weekend a month volunteering in “civil resilience”.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

yes it is relevant. why should today’s 18 year olds be gleefully volunteered for national service by older generations that said generations haven’t had to do it themselves? is it because they’re ‘stroppy and entitled’ and more lacking in disciple or whatever than their elders? that narrative, which is the narrative that the tories are angling towards with this policy, whether they openly say it or not, is absolute bollocks. show me the evidence that says today’s teenagers are any more entitled than those of previous generations

This was written in 1907, and has been wrongly attributed to Socrates, but was referring to ancient Greeks and Romans.

“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”

 

[Littlemo]

You are right.

Mandatory is entirely wrong.

If they want to sent up a scheme linked to some form of vocational qualification, that’s different. But as you and I know, Sunak has no idea. He’s literally woken up this morning and thought, “what can I make up now.”

It’s not even been costed for properly.

I’m sure it will have been costed out ages ago. The business owning friends and families of the Tories will have long worked out what all those volunteers doing their “Work” in their business will save them in wages.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Absolutely pandering to those shitstalga Twitter accounts that recall “yesterday’s Britain” by showing a picture of lots of white people and a Union flag, and not mentioning rationing was still a thing when it was taken.

 

[BBassic]

If the young generation are lazy or feckless or whatever nonsense is being levied at them the fault lies with their parents, no?

Send the parents off for national service. Lead by example.

It's just nuts. A desperate act by a desperate man. Yet another idiotic idea that won't happen. Got us all talking about it though, eh?

 

[Guinness Boy]