National Service, Soon To Be Compulsory....

[ToraToraTora]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-48755605
Surely that's against EUSSR regs? Don't get me wrong, good idea, we should do it.

[douglas9401]

"yes my mother is very proud actually having an open minded, bright young lad as her son"

You have a brother?

[spathiphyllum]

I do.

[Sqad]

LOL...not necessarily, we all don't live in a cocoon, we have visitors,children, grandchildren, great grandchildren........for Gods sake spath, us oldies are still living creatures until we die.

[youngmafbog]

Spath is being very ageist.

I think someone should call plod !!

[sevenOP]

"It is usually the hand wringing liberal elite who blame it on those things because they want to hide the truth that they, through right-on liberal justice, have created the problem." - youngmafbog

Perfect example to ask , can you explain what is the "right-on liberal justice" is that they did to have created the problem ?

[KARL]

Sqad at 12.33. Are you sure it is not essentially change that bothers the "older generation" about things to do with "nowadays" and "the young" ? Just a thought ;)

[ToraToraTora]

AOG 12:01, the answer immediately following tells you everything you need to know!

[anotheoldgit]

sevenOP

/// No, the paid soldiers would be better order takers than the voluntary soldiers. ///

Try telling that to those National Service men who took orders to the letter, when fighting along side the regular soldiers in Korea and Malaysia.

The forces have ways and means when it comes to the ranks taking orders.

Incidentally 'voluntary soldiers' also got paid, not a lot but still paid.

[spathiphyllum]

"AOG 12:01, the answer immediately following tells you everything you need to know!"


It really does.

Shut up about the war and how the young generation would cope with it.

[spathiphyllum]

You talk as if people my age aren't already in the army.

[anotheoldgit]

spathiphyllum
/// Exactly Zacks, yet we have people such as AOG pretty much saying... yes, train them up, send them to war, they must defend their country, whip them into shape, not just the little boys, but also the little girls! ///

Who mentioned little boys and little girls? one had to be 18 or over to do National Service.

But then you later referred to yourself as a man, when in fact you yourself come across as a very little boy.

/// Andres you think a man as shallow as myself would care to read anyone elses answers but my own? Purleaseee. ///

[spathiphyllum]

"when in fact you yourself come across as a very little boy. "

If i saw people talk to a little boy the way some on here talk to me i would be flabbergasted.

[Sqad]

KARL....maybe, maybe.
But it is a world that i fail to understand and have difficulty coping with at times.
Life seemed so simple half a century ago, it seems so complicated today.

[albaqwerty]

I may have missed it but has anyone suggested the good which could come out of National Service?

For example, the realisation that you're good at mechanics/engineering?

[sevenOP]

aog, I beg pardon , I mis-typed, I meant " No, the paid soldiers would be better order takers than the CONSCRIPTED soldiers." but you answered that by saying that in Korea and Malaysia that did not appear to be the case - maybe that was the case THEN, but that was 60 years ago, the public has changed a vast amount since then and I doubt such Imperialistic wars would be entertained by any sensible person now.

So who were these 'voluntary soldiers' you mentioned and why would they not be paid the same as regular/conscripts ?(whichever is lower)

[dannyk13]

sevenOP, if memory serves a conscript was paid 28s pw and a regular soldier 49s pw/

[sevenOP]

Thanks for the info dannyk.

So a regular solder got roughly £2.50 a WEEK! and now a Recruits (in Basic training); £15,230 a year = ~ £290 a week... that is 116 times as much, a regular soldier now gets around Private: £18,859 a year = £362 a week = 144 times as much.....have these financial clowns really screwed up our money.

dannyk, have you any idea who these 'voluntary soldiers' aog mentioned might be ?

[hereIam]

Brilliant BA.

spath - you ARE ageist, I've noticed it before.

[spathiphyllum]

Yawn. No i'm not. I just stickup for the youth against the oldies with a grudge! I aint got nada against ages. I have something against grumpy old people who blame the youth for everything.

Ironically i also have something against the youth who blame absolutely everything on old people.

Just because you capitalise "are" doesn't make me ageist.

[jourdain2]

Just answering the original post. When I lived in France, all 16 yr. olds in our commune were contacted by post (I saw the letter) and told to enlist onto something or other - it was a form of community service and mainly to do with the harvest (loads of kids turned up at a farm next to me)- anyway, they were checking up on who was who and where. It did build social cohesion and they seemed to be having a good time, working hard and having fun.

OH left school and went into the Merchant Navy. Qualified as a Navigation Officer but decided it wasn't for him and left in the early '50s, knowing that he would then have to do Nat. Service. Naturally - despite his qualifications- he was placed in the infantry! He still talks about it. He thoroughly enjoyed it, was sent to Germany to patrol up and down the Iron Curtain and learned to ski, as well as to speak basic German.


Today I read that kids are abandoning music festivals because they don't like getting wet and muddy. Doesn't that say something?