“I SPENT 22 years in the army. It ain’t gonna work.”
“I don’t want to die for Rishi Sunak, to be honest I don’t think any 18-year-old in this country wants to do that.”
“They must be desperate if they’re going to start sending children to war.”
Those were just some of the less expletive-laden responses The National was given when it asked the people of Glasgow for their views on Conservative plans to bring in conscription if they win the General Election.
That is obviously a pretty massive “if”, given that Rishi Sunak’s party are trailing Labour in the polls by more than 20 points.
But the Tories’ announcement has started a conversation – and the idea wasn’t unanimously derided.
Some people on the streets of Glasgow, almost exclusively older ones, thought that the idea had some merit. There was a general feeling that young people need more options and more structure, and national service may give that to them.
However, even where the proposals found support, they were seen as “wrong-headed”.
One person said they would support a more civic-minded form of national service, with a focus on infrastructure rather than replacing trained armed forces personnel with freshly graduated schoolchildren.
Among younger people however, the consensus was unanimous. The idea was seen as a “desperate” attempt from the Conservatives to play to their voter base at young people’s expense.
“They sort of think the under-25s are all these woke, non-binary wimps, and yet they want an army of them? It doesn’t make sense to me,” one person quipped.
Others suggested the idea had not been thought through, questioning how it could be both mandatory and not legally enforced – or why young people would want to get involved in service for a state which is increasingly stripping back what it offers in return.
Time will tell whether the Tories’ have any more bright ideas up their sleeves before the General Election rolls around.
