@mickcarty @Bliss

So, if you have a job or are a student, you take the weekends option.

Me, I think mandatory national service for high school graduates is a fine idea. Get some skin in the game, learn some real-world stuff.

@mcfate @Bliss
I doubt very much that the choice will be as simple as that. At some point there will be a realisation that the military option is the only one the kids with no money will have.

@mickcarty @Bliss

Um, what?

Why would I think that? I'm going by the information YOU provided.

Were you misleading me? Are you suggesting they're going to make kids PAY to do national service on weekends?

@mcfate @Bliss
No. We are talking about a Tory policy here. It will be worked to make sure that the entitled little pricks that attend Eton, Oxford, Cambridge etc have nice little cushy weekend numbers, while the working class kids end up in the forces for a year. It’s the Tory way, after all.

@mickcarty @Bliss

Pretty much as I thought.

If it wasn't backed by the party you back, you're against it, and you're willing to invent unsupported reasons for why.

Got it. You're like the Republicans voting against the border bill because Biden might get credit.

@mcfate @Bliss
I wouldn’t back it no matter who proposed it.

@mickcarty @Bliss

Mm-kay. That explains why your big reason for being against it is that it's a "Tory proposal".

👌

@mcfate
Will I tell you why I’m against it?
Well, I’m sure there are some kids who will welcome, and benefit from, this idea, but the vast majority will not. British society has changed dramatically from what it was in years gone by, and good luck convincing any 18 year old to leave home for the military. Most can’t even organise their own driving lessons these days.
A huge number already have anxiety, and self esteem, even self-identity issues.
/

@mcfate
As if we haven’t been treating the youth of this country like shit for years - lower minimum wage, no housing entitlement, taking away their right to live, work, & study in 27 countries- the government are now saying “don’t worry, we’ll keep you studying maths until your 18, then stick you in the army for a year.”
The British armed forces, too, have suffered under these clowns; reduction after reduction, until it’s barely recognisable as being any force at all.
/

@mcfate
Now they’ll likely have to act as a glorified community centre for kids who won’t want to be there. How will this improve the military?
Look at the Argentine or Russian conscripts, and how many simply dropped their guns and ran, or surrendered, to see how effective that is.
/

@mcfate
Police forces, fire services etc who’ve also faced massive cuts, and had to fight for a decent wage just to do their jobs, will also have to make room for weekenders.
And how will it be paid for? From the Shared Prosperity Fun. From the money cities have been promised to ‘level up’.
/

@mcfate
If this comes about - and I’m nowhere near certain it will as it’s more than likely just a dead cat to deflect from other issues - university study, apprenticeships and other youth opportunities will be absolutely trashed. Just to serve a desperate vanity project.

@mickcarty

Why would any of those things be "trashed"? Someone looking for an apprentice will stop wanting one?

We're talking about one weekend a month here. You sound like you're catastrophizing to me.

@mickcarty

"How will it be paid for!?"

Now YOU sound like a Tory.

@mickcarty

Since when did "improving the military" factor into the for you? Is it measurable in minutes?

I get it, you hate the Conservative Party.

@mickcarty

Okay, so your problem with it isn't the cost, and it isn't that it'll disfavor the poor, it's that kids these days are lazy idiots.

You're all over the map. You seem to have no coherent arguments aside from being really, REALLY mad about something or other.

@mcfate
So, having lots of reasons why I hate the idea is being “all over the map”?
Never said kids are lazy idiots
It is the cost & where the money will come from.
It will disproportionately affect the poor.
It is the fact that it will not improve an already stretched military or police or NHS. I’ll tell you something - any soldier wants to know that the guy next to him has got his back & that won’t be the case with unwilling conscripts.
Yes, I’m fucking mad, & so should we all be.
#TorysOut

@mickcarty

It's obvious that you're mad.

And yeah, your ever-evolving list of "reasons", none of which come with a shred of anything to back any of them up, is "all over the map".

@mcfate
Aye, ok, you’re right.
I’ll go sit down in a corner and rethink my life. Nice chatting.

@mickcarty

Good luck with that.

👍

@mickcarty @mcfate

That's what happens in the US. It's voluntary of course but often times kids from rural areas have few job opportunities. Unless they get a scholarship to University they have limited prospects for a good future. In the military they can get free housing, food, health care and a also a free college education while seeing the world.