UK Conservatives plan to bring back mandatory national service

[Note for yanks and other OOTL people: The Conservative party has just called an election in the next couple of weeks. Knowing that they're completely dead and buried, they're desperately throwing more and more insane promises at the electorate to see what sticks.]

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Link, archive

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The Conservative Party has said it would bring back mandatory national service if it wins the general election.

It said 18-year-olds would have a choice of either joining the military full-time, or volunteering one weekend every month carrying out a community service.
The party is proposing a Royal Commission to consider the details but would plan for the first teenagers to take part in September 2025.
The cost is expected to be around £2.5bn per year.
Under the plans, young people could choose a full-time, 12-month placement in the armed forces or UK cyber defence, learning about logistics, cyber security, procurement or civil response operations.
Their other option would be to volunteer one weekend per month - or 25 days per year - in their community with organisations such as fire, police and the NHS.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he believed bringing back compulsory service across the UK would help foster the "national spirit" that emerged during the pandemic.
Mr Sunak said: “This is a great country but generations of young people have not had the opportunities or experience they deserve and there are forces trying to divide our society in this increasingly uncertain world.
“I have a clear plan to address this and secure our future. I will bring in a new model of National Service to create a shared sense of purpose among our young people and a renewed sense of pride in our country."
The prime minister said the move would help young people to learn "real world skills, do new things and contribute to their community and our country".

 

[St.Davis]

National service wouldn't even be the worst idea going if circumstances were different. Instilling discipline in kids would be beneficial, but I have 0 faith in the current military or government, and this is more likely an attempt to bolster army numbers for a potential conflict with Russia (of our own fucking design).

The only thing the Tories had to do was get the pakis out.

 

[Beautiful Border]

I wouldn't be against this if we still lived in a country worth fighting for, but the fact of the matter is we don't. No one in their right mind would still swallow bilge about "dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" when looking at the state of modern Britain. There is no reason for any teenager who would be affected by this to feel any fealty towards this country.

I half think this has been released to conceal the fact that Labour are planning to give 16/17 year olds the vote, something they have smugly said will help them to win future elections.

If they've announced this in response to that then that makes this move even dumber. "One party wants to give your son the vote, the other wants to send him off to war". You literally couldn't write a better attack ad than that.

 

[AssignedEva]

So on paper this almost sounds like a good idea -

Under the plans, young people could choose a full-time, 12-month placement in the armed forces or UK cyber defence, learning about logistics, cyber security, procurement or civil response operations.
Their other option would be to volunteer one weekend per month - or 25 days per year - in their community with organisations such as fire, police and the NHS.

- so the more capable kids can do a 1 year placement where they learn a specific niche skill, or alternatively support the police, the NHS or firefighters through volunteer work.

The problem is that this is just basically creating a national training scheme in the military, which has been completely hollowed out and in no way has the capacity to run a mini apprenticeship scheme for a bunch of 18 year olds who are only there for one year... and otherwise foisting a bunch of untrained 18 year olds onto overstretched public services that likely would have no use for them beyond making teas and doing cleaning (although having dealt with 18 year old interns, that may actually be beyond some of their capabilities).

It also fails to explain how it'd work for all the teenagers who don't want to do it, of which there'll be many (whether that's "nah man fuck that, why I going to volunteer for some white people country?" or "my headmates have anxiety about leaving the bedroom"). There'll be the ones that turn up and just refuse to do anything, taking up office space in a fire station or hospital while they play on their phones - and there'll be the ones that completely refuse to engage. James Cleverly (Home Secretary) has already said that nobody would go to prison or face criminal charges over refusing to engage, but that teenagers would be "arrested". I guess they're going to get the 18 year old police volunteers to do it? Police don't even bother investigating burglaries any more, there's no way they're going to spend time chasing around 18 year olds to try and make them go sit in their own police station to help with paperwork.

One thing I'm vaguely interested to see if this has any impact on youth voter turnout - if this actually motivates 18 year olds whose normal stance is "nah I don't do politics", it could lead to an even bigger swing in some seats.

 

[Bioniclelover]

The Conservative Party has said it would bring back mandatory national service if it wins the general election.

How the fuck is this supposed to make anyone more inclined to vote for them? I have never heard of anyone under the age of 60 that supports mandatory national service.

Also, "sense of pride in our country" sounds like a catchphrase that they would throw people in jail for promoting extreme nationalism lol

 

[Fred Herbert]

Are they trying to lose?

Yes. The UK is hurtling towards disaster faster than most of the west (except Canada, whose leadership seems actively trying to MadMax the country Speedrun Style). They don’t want to be the ones in charge when things go to shit. Even though their shitty policies are directly responsible in most cases.

 

[Bloom Worm Cross Field]

If I were sworn in to the US presidency tomorrow I would begin IMMEDIATELY pivoting to an alliance with the Russians against the rapidly islamizing EU and UK

Russia likes to look based to outsiders but domestically it uses diversity as a control mechanism just as much as any western country. They still have a significantly higher proportional Muslim population than the UK and are further along the Islamisation pipeline in a lot of ways.

Traditional Islam is an integral part of the Russian cultural code

- Vladimir Putin

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Liz Truss was the last chance for the UK to be fixed

Nah, Truss is a free market capitalism (ie, lax borders) fanatic and former Lib Dem, who on becoming PM selected a cabinet with exactly 0 white men. She got booted because rich party members got spooked that her and Kwasi were going to put the economy on a speedrun to actual Zimbabwe status.

chortled about lettuce as an elected leader was illegally deposed.

She was barely more elected than Sunak to be fair, the damage had already been done at that point.

Votes for PM (inb4 "you don't vote for the PM"):
Boris: 14'000'000
Liz: 81'000 (Tory party membership)
Rishi: 0.

 

[AssignedEva]

I have never heard of anyone under the age of 60 that supports mandatory national service.

That's the 2019 election - more recent data suggests the only age cohorts that have Conservative as the plurality vote are 55-64 and 65+. So if people over 60 are in support of national service, then it's something the Tories will throw out there to avoid losing votes to Reform UK.
Interestingly since National Service was abolished in 1960, the last people to have undertaken it are 82 now. However the concept does seem to be weirdly popular with people in their 60s and 70s, who never had to do it themselves.

 

[Butterschmalz]

Shaniqua is right on it.

 

[Dr J]

Interestingly since National Service was abolished in 1960, the last people to have undertaken it are 82 now.

That's false, they stopped making it mandatory for people born after October 1939.

 

[Bloom Worm Cross Field]

However the concept does seem to be weirdly popular with people in their 60s and 70s, who never had to do it themselves.

Same generation that likes to act like they fought in WWII when they weren't even alive to see it.

 

[Bioniclelover]

Interestingly since National Service was abolished in 1960, the last people to have undertaken it are 82 now. However the concept does seem to be weirdly popular with people in their 60s and 70s, who never had to do it themselves.

Eternal boomer strikes yet again.

Now in all seriousness betting their success on people who likely will not be alive in ten years comes off as extremely retarded strategy but again, UK conservatives have done a termendous number of retarded things in the last decade. It's really interesting how they appeal to fucking nobody yet expect that certain people will vote for them by default, just completely detached from what happens in real life since noone of their policies affect what happens in villas they live in.

 

[Kel1 shi1]

However the concept does seem to be weirdly popular with people in their 60s and 70s, who never had to do it themselves.

It's easy to vote for something like that when it wont have an effect on you only "Those bloody yooths hanging around all day".

 

[Sister Miriam Godwinson]

Russia likes to look based to outsiders but domestically it uses diversity as a control mechanism just as much as any western country. They still have a significantly higher proportional Muslim population than the UK and are further along the Islamisation pipeline in a lot of ways.

Different kettle of fish though. It weren't Muslim migrants who rushed into Russia to fuck it up, it was the Russian Empire which subjugated the Asiatic Muslims and was rubbing shoulders with them since the campaigns in XVII century.

 

[Sargon's wife's son]

Let's see. I'm not too hopeful since Richard Tice looks like a seedy salesman with no actual interest in the cause he's offering, and Farage has decided to swan off to the US to chase Trump brown-nosing bux. Everything I've seen indicates that Reform don't know how to be a serious political party, but we'll see. I'll probably vote for them if they're standing, even though their immigration policy is really weasel-wordy (stopping "non-essential" workers from coming, ending "abusive" visa schemes).

I'm glad I helped destroy the British National Party Nigel Farage when being interviewed about stealing all the voters from the BNP
Nigel Farage is controlled opposition and i hope he gets

 

[Doctor Love]

The fact that no viable MAGA equivalent in Britian has stepped up to the plate and made gains in politics has to be the absolute craziest part of the post Brexit England.

Because they made it illegal to disagree with the current government.

So, any viable "MAGA equivalent" for the UK would put British culture first, right? That would immediately jump to three major changes.

1) Mass deportations. MASS deportation. A population decrease. This is illegal to suggest, as it is "racist" to do so.

2) Reinstatement of rights. This includes the right to bear arms (USA kept this, the UK overregulated it after Ireland's war of independence and then outright destroyed it under Blair) and freedom of speech. The former is illegal to suggest, as it is "Incitement to violence" or an "extreme" policy.

3) Restructure of the justice system, and reinstatement of the death penalty in extreme cases. The vast majority of the British public would prefer to execute paedophiles by hanging. This is illegal, as it is "Incitement to violence"

All three are core British values which were seized and undemocratically removed by the state. It was then made illegal to even try to bring them back.

This is a situation where, if you try to protest politically, men with guns will be on their way to take you and remove you from society.

 

[Overly Serious]

The fact that no viable MAGA equivalent in Britian has stepped up to the plate and made gains in politics has to be the absolute craziest part of the post Brexit England. At least America could get MTG and Boebert in Congress.

The British Establishment is very, very good at identifying nexus points around which resistance begins to coalesce and getting in there early with some discrediting tactics. And as to opposition internally, the culture is again very good at circling the wagons and removing the 'wrong sort of attitude'. Very good.

 

[Dr J]

Russia likes to look based to outsiders but domestically it uses diversity as a control mechanism just as much as any western country. They still have a significantly higher proportional Muslim population than the UK and are further along the Islamisation pipeline in a lot of ways.

I've been to Russia and unless it's really changed since 2008 (which I doubt) you are unlikely to see anything much other than white Europeans in its major population centres. I've been to Moscow and St Petersburg and I saw like three black people. The Muslims, I'm told, mainly live in their enclaves in Chechnya and Dagestan, among other places.

Not like London at all

 

[Overly Serious]

I've been to Russia and unless it's really changed since 2008 (which I doubt) you are unlikely to see anything much other than white Europeans in its major population centres. I've been to Moscow and St Petersburg and I saw like three black people. The Muslims, I'm told, mainly live in their enclaves in Chechnya and Dagestan, among other places.

Not like London at all

There are also over a billion "muslims" on the planet. Knew a Persian couple from Iran - he and his wife were both really nice to know. And Muslim. If I were a young girl who lived in Rotherham where Pakistani rape gangs operated for years, or a particular female friend I'm thinking of whose Muslim parents locked her in her room and didn't let her have a mobile phone and beat her because she was seen talking to a White boy, I might feel quite different. I've never met a chechen that I know of but they always seem so happy shooting their AKs in the war footage and my general impression of them is if they didn't kill me they'd probably be pretty fun to hang around with and share some of my values.

My point, to support yours basically, is that Muslim =/= Ethnicity or even necessarily Culture.

 

[Random Internet Person]

Because they made it illegal to disagree with the current government.

So, any viable "MAGA equivalent" for the UK would put British culture first, right? That would immediately jump to three major changes.

1) Mass deportations. MASS deportation. A population decrease. This is illegal to suggest, as it is "racist" to do so.

2) Reinstatement of rights. This includes the right to bear arms (USA kept this, the UK overregulated it after Ireland's war of independence and then outright destroyed it under Blair) and freedom of speech. The former is illegal to suggest, as it is "Incitement to violence" or an "extreme" policy.

3) Restructure of the justice system, and reinstatement of the death penalty in extreme cases. The vast majority of the British public would prefer to execute paedophiles by hanging. This is illegal, as it is "Incitement to violence"

All three are core British values which were seized and undemocratically removed by the state. It was then made illegal to even try to bring them back.

This is a situation where, if you try to protest politically, men with guns will be on their way to take you and remove you from society.

The British Establishment is very, very good at identifying nexus points around which resistance begins to coalesce and getting in there early with some discrediting tactics. And as to opposition internally, the culture is again very good at circling the wagons and removing the 'wrong sort of attitude'. Very good.

Sounds like the only courses of action are:

1. Watch as Labor works to make their leftist utopia a reality, considering that Labor is slated to win big and Sadiq Khan got another term as Mayor of London.

2. Hold on for dear life as things go to shit. From the sound of things, the only real avenue is to wait as everything burns to the ground, and then step into action to fight to be king of the wasteland ashes since Great Britain has now become a real life version of Fallout or Fist of The North Star.

Feels Bad Man.

 

[Doctor Love]

Sounds like the only courses of action are:

3) Build a rapport around a proxy for one of those three.

Personally, I would go for the preservation of historic monuments, and gradually increase the scope until you start building tanks.