Your detectorometer needs recalibrating, big time.
General UK politics VII -Return of the Starmer
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Your detectorometer needs recalibrating, big time.
Vixen
Penultimate Amazing
It's pathetic. Parliament is effectively prorogued and here is the Prime Minister announcing a new policy which he is supposed to do in front of the Speaker of the House as a matter of courtesy and protocol. It is also on a Bank Holiday weekend when Saturday night turns into Sunday. It's completely nuts. As Robert Peston points out, how can 'volunteering at weekends' equate to 'mandatory'.
We have compulsory military service for all males aged over 18 and it often starts at age 17 and can be deferred until after university up until age 28, after which it is no longer compulsory. Conscientious objectors or just objectors can opt for a six month (iirc) prison sentence instead. But then again we have Russia next door who have a nasty habit of constantly attacking and threatening us. For Finns it is simply a rite of passage. They learn to shoot, drive tanks, and how to survive in the wilds.
Having three-says worth of provisions is common sense here and everyone has access to a solid bomb shelter. Everyone has a stock of high-dose Iodine, just in case.
ISTM that the UK is unprepared for war, with the Defence Forces becoming run down through the years through a lack of investment and a slight complacency.
Sunak is probably heeded the exhortations of former defence minister Ben Wallace, or perhaps even ex-Army chief, Dannatt.
However, it is all very odd for Sunak to spring this curve ball on day 3 of the election campaign with such specific detail.
Latest rumour is that Cameron is going to stand in Sunak's place, which would mean he'd have to resign from the Lords first.
Blair became electable. But he was identifiably Labour. Starmer is not in my view.
Look, I’m Labor/Labour in my blood. But I can still be disappointed in the leaders they put up.
gypsyjackson
Master Poster
Oh, I hadn’t either. This is exciting, it’s like meeting new people. Except they’re all the same person. And a ****.
gypsyjackson
Master Poster
I think you must have missed that an election has been called. He’s not announcing government policy (which should be to the House), he’s announcing Tory policy if they win the election. Or probably more accurately, he’s announcing Rishi policy, because it doesn’t seem to have been fully thought through with all the implications considered.
Well you can certainly claim that but when you are pushing a pro-Tory line forgive me for being skeptical.
How am I pushing a pro-Tory line? I’ve hated Tories, both Brit and Australian my whole life. I’ve also seen Labor/Labour self destruct so many times with lacklustre leaders.
Yes Labour will win comfortably, but when Starmer (and Albanese) is the best they can do, the cupboard is pretty bare.
Marching boldly back to the. 1950s.
Maybe rich kids can afford a weekend a month for this kind of thing but at 18 I was working every weekend to earn money to afford to go to university and studying for my exams.
I wonder what exemptions there will be.
Pixel42
Schrödinger's cat
Fortunately we will never know what exemptions there would have been if this half witted government had stayed in power long enough to enact this half witted idea.
You're right. Unless it's a manifesto pledge even if they win the election, they'll quietly drop it.
It seems that Conservatives are pining for National Service that most of them are too young to have done.
Mojo
Mostly harmless
Good point
I'm sure our understaffed armed forces will be delighted to receive hundreds of thousands of unenthusiastic recruits every year and our criminal classes will benefit from military training and access to weapons.
Mojo
Mostly harmless
Good point
I'm sure our understaffed armed forces will be delighted to receive hundreds of thousands of unenthusiastic recruits every year and our criminal classes will benefit from military training and access to weapons.
Well, training people to kill with their bare hands might cut knife crime.
SteveAitch
Master Poster
Well, National Service ended in the '60s ("In November 1960 the last conscripted men entered service, as call-ups formally ended on 31 December 1960, and the last conscripted servicemen left the armed forces in May 1963" - Wiki), so the youngest survivors would be in their eighties. There might be the odd Tory member of the Lords who remembers...
P.J. Denyer
Penultimate Amazing
Thank you. I'd heard it on the radio.
ETA: They should have kept the dead guy, he'd have been ideal stood (propped?) against Truss.
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Andy_Ross
Penultimate Amazing
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Talking to Sky News's Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Home Secretary James Cleverly said: "There's going to be no criminal sanctions, nobody's going to jail over this."
He added that "nobody will be compelled to do the military element" but said those who do will be paid - while those who choose to volunteer will not be paid.
He didn't say how they would be compelled to participate or what sanctions there would be for refusing.
Hardly mandatory is it?
They seem to be walking it back already.
He added that "nobody will be compelled to do the military element" but said those who do will be paid - while those who choose to volunteer will not be paid.
He didn't say how they would be compelled to participate or what sanctions there would be for refusing.
Hardly mandatory is it?
They seem to be walking it back already.
Yes, voluntary conscription is something only the Tories could envisage.
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