Published on 12, July, 2020
I see this old chestnut has come to the fore again. I can see problems with it.
Does the military want all these people for a year or so and what will they do with them?
If people are made to volunteer for things like life boats, special constables and library assistants, will it mean that the training for such things will outlast the service time?
Will real jobs be at risk because people are volunteering?
If theres no sanctions how will they make people do it?
Will it mean that those currently on benefits will be sanctioned for not "doing their bit"?
Will this idea have mission creep? If not enough people volunteer, will some kind of sanction be imposed?
It all sounds desperate to me, like a political party flailing about to find vote winning policies that are ill thought out.
It won't come in until 2029 anyway, just in time for another election, hmmm?
The kind of regressive thinking that seems to define conservative thinkers. I've never understood this notion that putting teenagers into the military builds character, or gives you 'real world skills'. Even worse, the idea of sending troubled or anti-social teenagers into the military. Sure, let's teach them how to kill people.
It's just another attempt to use vacuous nostalgia for 'our lost Britain' as a vote-harvester.
yeah im on the fence with it.i can see how it can help and maybe change a bad lad to a better lad... i can also see how it may change a bad lad to a even worse dangerous lad...it all depends really, each person it will have different result....one thing i can say is that a decent martial art class will have the same result. fitness, discipline, fighting, getting any bad energy out of system in controlled place and destressing, assertiveness, confidence, life changing stuff.... doesnt need to be military they could send to to any decent martial arts class... comes with same risk that teaching bad cocky kid martial arts may just create a hazard to the public though... so it is case by case basis.
I agree with you Capt, I've been told that all sorts of things are character building, I've even tried some of them! I think I'll stick to being characterless if thats the sort of character they want to build. I think I'm just the sort of person who can't help asking 'Why?' when someone tells me to jump.
I notice this thread has exclusively stayed on the military option and not the civilian ones, why is that?
Clearly, you've not any practical expereince of mIlitary training.
It IS character building, in that it trains you to prioritise service over self interest, it gives you experiences that you'd otherwise never think of having, or have the opportunity to do (unless you have money to burn) and in my case it gave me a very solid training in electronics. It also trained me to know when it is apporpriate to standup and put up a fight and when to run away.
Then of course, you get sent out to kill or be killed in a "bankers war" when they next need to make a "blood sacrifice", unless you are lucky like I was and pick the right time to join.
And to be fair, whilst I was grateful of the training opportunites for self advancement, I found that I was consistently bullied (for what I now know to be my autism) adn it didn't stop when I went to my forst working unit, in fact some staff sergeant made me a "personal project", and after a mere three months I'd had enough, so I quit.
I managed to do it in such a way, that in addition to making my own escape, I seem to have trashed his career in the process. (as I later found out) Result!!
And regressive thinking is the opposite of the progressive thinking that produces the useless man-boys and deviants that currenlty hold sway over your thinking and "lead" our country.
Like the current chanractlerless prat who having got us into a shooting war with the Russians (which they have not actually informed us PLEBS that we are in, but the russians know alright who is operating those storm shadow missiles, and it isn't the Ukrainins ) suddenly realsies that he doesn't want to be a "wartime prime minster" so having got us Ba**s deep into that mess, is seeking to bail out quickly and leave the mess to someone else.
Still, we get the leaders that we deserve...
Captain Grover said:I've never understood this notion that putting teenagers into the military builds character, or gives you 'real world skills'.
I have family who are career military and they found it was a great way to learn a lot of skills that would be difficult to get in civilian life without money or access.
There were things like getting a driving license (my nephew gained up to the HGV license which has obvious use outside the military), training on vehicle maintenance, sapper skills (civil engineering in a very hands on way), electronics (admittedly a bit niche now) and IT skills.
There are typically lots of other avenues this opens up if you want to develop skills while being paid although this needs more than the part time conscription model to access, but it is now open to you.
Captain Grover said:Even worse, the idea of sending troubled or anti-social teenagers into the military.
I often wonder if this would be a good way for so many of our snowflake generation to learn the importance of discipline, whether self or imposed and that there are a lot of positives in spite of the negatives.
Captain Grover said:Sure, let's teach them how to kill people.
There is almost an unheard of thing in the military these days, certainly for any European army.
If push comes to shove and we get into a conventional war then we need to send someone off to do this horrible job and who better than those who society has invested least in so far. This is how politicians will view it.
Who should we send? They need to be fit, maleable and dispensible. Can you think of any other group who would be fit for purpose here?