In the spirit of modern British politics, our most recent Tweedledums and Tweedledees, or Thompsons and Thomsons, are again indulging in their great gladiatorial encounters. On the one hand, Sunak, Goveless in Gaza. On the other hand, Starmer, looking like a butler, bringing forward his great double act of Jeeves and, er, Reeves.
We wake on a Sunday morning to find that Sunak is promising to bring back National Service. All the retired sergeant majors who read the Telegraph reinsert their monocles, raise their swagger sticks, before drinking a double brandy out of the skulls of former colleagues lent back to the nation as part of an exchange for the Benin bronzes.
We also get out of the other side of the bed to find that Starmer is promising to lower the voting age to 16. All the feral youth of the nation immediately polish their passports, read a newspaper for the first time, and wonder why they can’t vote for Anthony Fauci, Chris Packham or Nicky Minaj.
Sunak: “Teenagers will either pursue a full-time military commission or alternatively can spend one weekend a month volunteering in civil resilience… Only by nurturing our shared culture and fostering a sense of duty can we preserve our nation and values for decades to come. This is an investment in both the character of young people and our security.”
Starmer: “If you can work, if you can pay tax, if you can serve in your armed forces, then you ought to be able to vote.”
It is all a trick.
First of all, National Service ≠ conscription. So it is voluntary. It will probably involving collecting rubbish on Sundays, or harassing the elderly during the next lockdown, or helping Just Stop Oil protestors by holding their glue caps. Perhaps, at the best, it might mean that we, unlike Nazi Germany, would begin a war by sending teenagers to the front rather than ending that way. As soon as the NHS is included in ‘National Service’ we know that this is just silliness squared.
Second, lower the age of voting ≠ radical change. For no young people know where their local school is. That’s a joke. But apparently they don’t vote. Let ’em vote; they won’t vote. But let’s make schoolchildren hysterical with responsibility and ennui.
But isn’t it amusing that the historic parties have offered us equal and opposite policies?
This is what happens when the choice is between a Sun and a Star. We are blinded by infinite possibility.
The logic seems to be:
There are no adults in the room.
So let us ask the children for help.
But notice the difference in tone. The Conservatives ask for a military solution, as if we are living in ancient Rome. Labour asks, on the contrary, for a civil solution, as if we are living in a political science textbook.
The other thing is that each seems to ask for what they are not. The modern Tories, led by Sunak, are about as unmilitary as one could possibly be. Sunak is a fair-weather politician (yes, I allude to that rain): one would prefer to have Keir on one’s side in a fight. And, on the other hand, Labour, as led by Starmer, are about an undemocratic as one could imagine. Starmer is a lawyer, for God’s sake. He wants to legislate us out of politics not into more of it. Why they are imposing their fantasies on the young is unclear.
Notice also the alarming fact that both parties are trying to tie up more of us in the state. It is as if we have still not built much of a state, and have to finally get around to building one: to catch up with Louis XIV and Frederick the Great. So much for the liberties of an Englishman.
But for the moment, we can enjoy the contrast between these two stunt policies. Which do you prefer, dear elector? “If you can vote, you should fight”, or, “If you can fight, you should vote”?
Dr. James Alexander is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at Bilkent University in Turkey.
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The confected battle between this pair of stunted shysters is an appalling spectacle. England is no longer a serious country.
Too damned right. It is all becoming very silly.
IMO Sunak wants out because he has conflicting family interest (India is doing roaring business with Russia). His family have investments in Ukraine but pretty sure they will want to hedge the risk because that is how you stay rich in times of uncertainty, and Sunak will know things aren’t going well on the current side of the divide the investments have been made.
This is pure speculation, but let’s just see if I am proved right.
The SNP suggested lowering the voting age to 16 a decade ago. It was floated again in the last couple of years.
They may be less likely to see voting for the illusory choice that it is so no surprise it’s being proposed repeatedly.
Voting just nominates one of these schemes to be implemented first with the other to follow, along with other favourites such as euthanasia.
Since we are going backwards “to catch up with Louis XIV and Frederick the Great” why not teach kids to do something useful that they will seriously need? I can see a definite need to be able to light a fire, live without electricity, cook over a spit.
Oh, I forgot, we can’t hunt anything and we can’t burn anything. So, we need to teach them to dig mass graves without the benefit of steel tools.
National service takes many forms.
French youngsters were once to be found all over Africa improving the breeding of goats and so forth. They probably still are:
‘National civil service (Service civique in French) is a form of volunteering for young adults set up by the government in 2010. After compulsory military service was suspended in 1998, the program was set up to help young people get involved in a months-long mission that served their country. The idea is to help young citizens develop their skills, get them thinking about their professional future, and offer support to their community.’
Like it or not, this, it seems to me, is a very good idea.
Added to which, there is good evidence that National Service improves voter turnout:
‘….we observe a significant and positive impact of military service on turnout. We estimate that the service increases turnout by approximately 7 percentage points.’
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0014292119302259
Like it or not, this, it seems to me, is a very good idea.
The idea is to establish a royal commission bringing in expertise both from across the military and from civil society to establish the details of the programme, so there is plenty of opportunity to refine the idea.
The Armed Forces are unlikely to agree to take on any sizeable new training commitment, given current constraints on establishment together with already established operational commitments. However territorial formations might very well welcome a flow of young reservist recruits from their local area.
Government overseas aid packages, support to NGOs, could be greatly enhanced with an influx of young volunteers.
In any case, one weekend a month for a year volunteering in the community is by no means a major commitment, particularly, for example, if it is incentivised, say, by a reduction in any student loan repayment liability.
So, at least in principle, in my view, the general idea has a great deal of merit.
How does fiddling with goats in Africa help France?
I tend to think that if there are useful tasks that need doing, someone will be prepared to pay for someone to do them. That’s called work.
I cannot take the idea seriously in its face and when you add in the context of a fake conservative regime that has been actively destroying my country for decades and has not learned anything (actually they don’t want to learn and Sunak wants to lose IMO) then this becomes quite offensive.
I quite agree, however I feel that there’s a real endemic of this going around. Especially on here!
https://x.com/NormanBrennan/status/1794796354025517380
Improving breeds of goats, goat farming techniques in Africa, reduces over grazing and improves yield, with all kinds of different benefits for Africans and their environment.
For France, it gives the individuals wonderful life experiences which they bring back to France and use their experience and enhanced capabilities to the advantage of the home country.
Voluntary Service Overseas does something similar already for British youngsters and others.
Well I would be sceptical about the long term positive effect on “Africa” – I tend to think we should leave other places alone to do things for themselves.
As for the positive effects on French youth, there is sure plenty of “wonderful life experience” to be had in France (plenty of Africans there if it’s somehow necessary that these wonderful experiences are with non-French people) – and why does it have to be volunteering. Work is satisfying when done well and if someone is prepared to pay you to do something, you are performing a useful service.
Ex-Muslim, Harris Sultan speaks to the blatant tribalism involved in Muslims strategically voting for Muslim independent parties. Is it far-fetched to expect local MPs to shut down bars and clubs because that’s what the majority of their constituents want? ( 2mins );
https://x.com/TheHarrisSultan/status/1794748480923300341
What a total prat. Wonder who he’ll be voting for…Well, ‘freedom of expression’ and all that. Has somebody got a Koran and a lighter going handy so we can reciprocate the gesture;
https://x.com/OliLondonTV/status/1794725909628682281
It’s well past time everyone understood why the political class are desperate for you to vote. They need you to vote to maintain the system, and it matters not one iota who you vote for as long as you do vote. By voting you are giving the system your approval for it to exist. The system, however, does not exist to serve you, the system exists to enslave you. You are locking your own handcuffs.
It won’t matter I mean I see the default on all arrangements across the board and simply the ability to pay the most basic things like a mortgage. In a few months time there will be few that even care. Not because they want to detach from the system but simply because it is way beyond their budget. Don’t talk to me about concern for voters when many of them are already on the brink of financial ruin because of your policies.
More so than ant other country the British are in thrall to television, especially the BBC.. You might think that we are in good shape but consider a fight with a fierce and determined enemy. Some countries do have young men like that, For me it just feel pointless pointing out the jeopardy of the British because they don’t seem to care. I have reached the point where I don’t give two hoots about complete demise given that they don’t have the self-respect to protect themselves. And even if they did they have long since been robbed of the wit to do so.
In the Red Corner wearing the red shorts from Surrey England—— Beadie Eyes Starmer. In the Blue corner wearing the blue shorts from Southampton England—-Sammi Davis Sunak. It isn’t going to be the “Thrilla in Manilla” that’s for sure. More like the “Wimpstas in Westminsta”
Given that there are about 650,000 children of any particular year group the ambition of 30,000 places seems a little half-hearted.
You are not allowed to be sent to fight until you are 18. So Starmer is talking out of his fundament.
It pains me to mock the whole process, because I know that – at least in theory – democracy is very precious (whether it’s what we truly have or indeed whether it’s truly possible). Still, I think this is very apt:
Voting and being a member of the armed forces are not linked.
It was the Monster Raving Loony Party that wanted the vote lowered in this way.
Once people have got used to national service it can be extended into conscription. Directed labour is part of a country on a war footing.
If the present-day Tories are unmilitary, it is surprising that they have enmeshed the UK so deeply in the Ukraine war. Starmer will always follow the rules and never boo his own team. He would likely be inflexible in any military situation.
Why impose their fantasies on the young? All authoritarian states see the young (other people’s children) as their future.
“Only by nurturing our shared culture….”
And what shared culture would that be? The one they’ve spent 8 decades trashing, particularly during the last 3, with mass immigration and enforced multi-culturalism?
I have no “shared culture” with the Pakistani grooming gangs; or Muslims in general, because I disagree completely with the basic tenets of their faith. I also have no shared culture with Orthodox Jews.
That doesn’t mean I don’t tolerate people with different faiths (or none) but my culture is Anglo-Saxon (with a significant input from the Scots, Welsh and Irish) and Christian.
I don’t see many recent arrivals on these shores participating in Morris Dancing …. or in the case of Muslims and Orthodox Jews, down the pub putting the world to rights over a pint of Old Wallop!
Ha,
If you live in Middlesborough you probably might like to vote and fight ……
……….. at the same time.