UK Election!

Not sure what the Tories think a fire service would do with a bunch of unskilled 18 year olds

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The only demographic in favour of National Service are the over 65’s. All other age groups are against it. Sunak knows this, so its purely to defend against Reform grabbing what votes are left from the Gammons.

The £2.5 billion it will cost, is also unfunded, as Labour pointed out.

We’re going to see every hard-right, swivel-eyed policy imaginable being promised by the Tories between now and the 4th July.

They’re just desperately trying to shore up their ever diminishing core vote ( because they’re all literally dying)

This is basically ‘bring back national service’ and let’s all pretend it’s 1955

its absolutely tragic really. Not to mention completely mental! Next thing they’ll be wanting us all to carry ration books and gas masks

Are you my mummy?

They’re just desperately trying to shore up their ever diminishing core vote ( because they’re all literally dying)

The irony being that the worsening Health Service, decimated by the party they voted for, has accelerated this as life expectancy is decreasing

So from 16 onwards in Rishi’s world you’d be forced to study maths then join the army?

Christ, he really is a ****ing moron, isn’t he?

Its only been a few days and already he’s reached the Alan Partridge stage. Just blurting out random ideas

Tomorrow: Monkey Tennis and Youth Hostelling with Chris Eubank

It’s obviously a stupid and not even slightly serious policy but it’ll appeal to some people… And if you’re one of those peple why are you not asking “why now”? Dude’s been PM for a year and a half, the party’s been in power for a decade and a half, and they’re coming out with this in the last 5 minutes of their time in power.

If you think national service is a good idea you should be saying **** off Rishi Sunak. And if you don’t you should definitely be saying **** off Rishi Sunak. And the same for every other damn fool announcement he’ll make in the coming weeks- if it was a good idea why didn’t you do it.

Tories talk about national service for 16 yr olds.

Labour talk about lowering the voting age to 16.

Tories aint never ever getting any votes from 16 yr olds :lol:

The only demographic in favour of National Service are the over 65’s.

How many over 65’s do you know well enough to draw that conclusion? This over 65 says phük that for a game of soldiers! And I’m prepared to bet most others are as well, ‘cos I actually know a few, surprisingly enough.

Having had some fresh-faced individual who looked barely past school leaving age come to my front door on Friday evening canvassing for the Chippenham candidate, whose name meant nothing to me, and who barely got eight words out before I said not interested, I came home from archery yesterday lunchtime to find a leaflet stuffed through my letterbox.
I wrote ‘RETURN TO SENDER’ across it with a Sharpie and posted it in a post box on my way into town a bit later.

Won’t achieve much, except make me feel a bit better, but it’s the little things that count. 😁

Well, if you want to motivate younger voters to vote, threatening then with National Service is one way of doing it I suppose! Though they wont vote in a way to help the Tories!

All this is pretty stunning really, the Tory campaign is an absolute cluster fudge.

I’m sure there will be some mess ups in the Labour campaign too, it’s inevitable but come on, the Tories are almost trolling themselves at this point.

I suppose a totally dysfunctional government was always going to lead to a dysfunctional election campaign.

Shocker! 😁

You know the episode of Peep Show where Alan gets Mark to create ‘Project Zeus’, by sitting in a hotel room on his own for 24 hours with no sleep.

It seems Rishi Sunak is now using the same approach to come up with new policies

^^ lol, just thinking of that episode made me chuckle and yes, very true!

P.s. what the hell were we all doing up at near 3am talking politics!?😁

I best head up soon. If I don’t I’m going to start watching Peep Show and before I know it, it’ll be 8am.😂

Satire is dead.  Imagine being so desperate, that with all the “potential improvements” possible in the UK which they could propose to the nation – this is what you pull out of your hat on day 3 of your campaign?  Jesus wept.

I mean, even if he left out the national service bit and just went with something to incentivise volunteering in 16-18 year olds – he could still campaign on the “young people need more national pride, work ethic etc”.  It would still be weak, but not as monumentaly out-of-touch as this.

Over 65?  Without any grandkids I suppose?

It’s just moronic.  If labour have any sense they’ll refuse to even discuss it, instead pointing at what it is:  a ridiculous, unworkable brainfart, and the sign of a party who have absolutely no idea what the country want or need – how can anyone take these people seriously?  Dickheads

Well, I suppose we will inevitably get an announcement that they want to bring back hanging by campaign day 7?

Perhaps announce an attempt to put a British rocket and Torynaut on the moon by 2025 and invade Argentina on day 1 of a new Tory government?

Seems logical enough.

Ah, government by announcement. So much easier than enacting actual policies. Way too much work involved.

1) There’s no need for the Army to find 1 million new units of accommodation. Practically no-one would join the military: only whoever wanted to go and the military actually wanted. The rest of these kids will be pushed over to “the NHS” (but presumably not the privatised parts) etc to find some time-wasting nonsense to do for one weekend a month. Not sure what the Tories think a fire service would do with a bunch of unskilled 18 year olds…but in any case all this only comes after a Royal Commission reports its findings (by which time it will all have been forgotten and any awkwardness can be blamed on the woke judge that chaired the commission).

All very true but for the voters who don’t think about anything for more than 10 seconds (50+% of them) the policy will sound good to them I imagine.  They just go by the bullet points and don’t think about implementation of it or whether it could even work.  But I get the sense that even those people have had enough of Rishi’s bullshit.

It seems Rishi Sunak is now using the same approach to come up with new policies

I think he’s mentally checked out completely. Literally just going through the motions with half an eye on his new mansion in California as he hangs out with Elon

In fact I almost think they don’t want to win. People have now realised that the country is in the shit (almost literally!) and no amount of platitudes that “the plan is working” will convince them otherwise.

Also, there’s not a lot left for the Tories to steal or palm off to their mates. They all want out now. Leave the mess to Labour.

National Service terrifies anyone in defence, the logistics is scary enough, but the already threadbare services would have to manage the risks posed by kids who will come in all shapes and sizes will be horrific, it’s a weird death cry from Sunak, he knows it’s dead in the water, and for some reason he’s even antagonising his own voters, as the military tend to vote tory in general.

We need to increase the opportunities for 16 year olds who are almost lost to the system, get them in apprenticeships, learning decent trades, camaraderie and so on, get the government into building stuff again to support a greener future, get high level apprenticeships in there and build a future.

We need to increase the opportunities for 16 year olds who are almost lost to the system, get them in apprenticeships, learning decent trades, camaraderie and so on, get the government into building stuff again to support a greener future, get high level apprenticeships in there and build a future.

But…but… DISCIPLINE! And RESPECT!.
Ans also marching and shooting and things to teach kids errr… something.

God forbid they should be given OPPORTUNITIES!
No, they just need to be shouted at a bit and made to march up and down. That’ll work.

I think it’s another dead cat policy. The main thing to look for is what the Tories are ramming through quickly in the background while the media go “ooh, National Service!” and the Torygraph and Mail tell us how great it’ll be and everyone with any sense says it’ll never work. Meanwhile, someone somewhere is forcing through some clause in a legal document that says you no longer have the right to a trial by jury….

I don’t think national service in itself is a bad thing.  However, if you look at western countries that actually have national service it looks very different to what I’d imagine the average Tory voter is envisioning.

https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2024/01/norway-young-people-compete-serve-military/393599/

Hey, it’s no sillier than trying to send refugees to Rwanda. 🤣

one weekend per month volunteering in roles such as special constable, RNLI volunteer, or NHS responder.

egads!

I don’t think national service in itself is a bad thing.

I think it is a great candidate for a referendum.

Just have the unusual feature that votes arent secret and anyone who votes in favour get “volunteered” whatever their age.

I suspect the number in favour might drop somewhat.

They’ve clearly got a room full of monkeys with typewriters haven’t they. Times short so they’ve sent the whips round to confiscate everyone’s drugs to throw into the mix and **** proofreading it all just send it straight to the Mail.

They’ve clearly got a room full of monkeys with typewriters haven’t they.

Nah. The monkeys would have come up with at least one good idea…

Couple of questions:
1. How does national service in other countries work where it is successful?
2. What would need to be done for it to work in the UK?

I’d watch a BBC3 sitcom on contemporary National Service called Rishi’s Regiment.

Ian Duncan Smith could play the humourless RSM,

We are about a fortnight away from a political party saying it will reintroduce hanging to attract the kippers

🤣

Service brings citizenship! Do you want to know more?

someone’s been watching Starship Troopers after a Friday night coke and champers binge…

We are about a fortnight away from a political party saying it will reintroduce hanging to attract the kippers

This is coming, isn’t it

I often come across National Service infrastructure when out and about, and looking at old maps.  Otherwise closed railways serving long vanished camps and training grounds before closing for good before Marples and Beeching.   Where would they fit  their “volunteers”

Not sure if this has been posted on previous pages, but as far as I can work out, no one under the age of 85 in the UK has completed national service……sure it’ll get a load of support from the boomers who harp on about WW2 even though they were likely not born then.

I hope that it goes into the Tory manifesto; when they lose, then it’s very easy to then say that national service was overwhelming rejected by the electorate.

It’s obviously a stupid and not even slightly serious policy but it’ll appeal to some people…

Judging from the comments on the Daily Mail website not many people. And the policy was announced in an article which Rishi Sunak personally wrote for the Daily Mail.

So far the only enthusiastic response I have seen to bringing back national service has come from Daily Telegraph editorial writers who aren’t very happy about young people demonstrating against the genocidal slaughter of innocent civilians, apparently it makes them “extremists”.

Back in the great days of the British Empire young people understood the unfortunate need for colonists to regularly slaughter ungrateful indigenous populations. Cecil Rhodes would have approved.

>>The only demographic in favour of National Service are the over 65’s<<

I’m 77 and missed it (thankfully) by 3 years. I can’t think of a single contemporary of mine who has advocated its return. Even those I know who actually did national service want it back.

no one under the age of 85 in the UK has completed national service……

My father who is 92 did National service, and got sent to the Korean War. As I have said before on this topic, he absolutely hated his entire time, whilst in Korea he was patronised and belittled by the regular army and it instilled in him a active dislike of any authority and a passionate dislike of the Monarchy., both of which he passed on to me and my brother. So if his experience is anything to go by I am not sure any compulsory service of any kind will actually do what he intended.

As a balance , his best friend spent his NS as an officer driving tanks around Salisbury Plain and quite enjoyed the experience, so I am guessing it would depend on the context and influence as is always the case here.

If I was yoof I’d rather be offered better opportunities to train, apprenticeships,, further education without massive debt, the realistic chance of buying my own home, the chance to live work and love abroad, a reasonable prospect of a state pension, basically all the things the sort of person who votes Tory had

Too much to ask?

It seems like it

Say what you like about the Tories but the one thing they are very good at is winning general elections.

Which is why I am completely baffled as to what the **** they are playing at. Coming up with a harebrained nonsensical policy, totally unrelated to the real issues affecting ordinary people’s lives, is always going generate a lot of discussions and airtime which could otherwise be spent more usefully.

The Tories are past masters at creating myths concerning their alledged superior understanding of economics, wtf aren’t they talking about that instead of talking bollocks about reintroducing national service?

They have only 6 weeks to focus on new myths and to attempt to fool voters, why are they wasting time coming up with ideas from 1960s Carry On films?

https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/24/five-pieces-of-economic-news-that-could-affect-the-uk-election-result

And while Rishi is suggesting recreating Dads Army, a Lib Dem spokesman has just been on the radio suggesting the effort may be better spent on regulating the water companies properly so they’re no longer paying themselves billions to literally fill the countries waterways full of shit

Imagine that?