Over 65s Think Young People Should Be Forced To Serve In Military

By : On : 16 Jan 2018 18:37
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According to findings from a new poll, the majority of people over the age of 65 believe young people should be forced to serve in the military.

The poll found 74 per cent of pensioners believe Britain should bring back compulsory National Service.

Yet the YouGov poll found only 10 per cent of 18 to 24 year olds felt the same.

National Service meant healthy males between the ages of 17 and 21 were expected to serve in the armed forces for a year and a half and to remain on a reserve list for four years.

The service began to be phased out in 1959, with the last National Serviceman being enrolled in 1960.

French President, Emmanuel Macron, has vowed to go ahead with his plan to reintroduce the system in France, which will provide military training for up to 800,000 young people a year.

Macron said it would give young people ‘a direct experience of military life with its know-how and demands’.

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The topic was covered on yesterday’s This Morning, (February 15) on ITV, with presenters Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes debating whether it should make a return to the UK.

Eamonn and Ruth were joined by former RAF navigator, John Nichol and journalist Clare Muldoon to talk about the subject.

Ruth made it clear she didn’t agree with compulsory national service for teenagers, saying:

It could help those involved in gangs who haven’t really got any good role models… the Army can be a family.

But that net would take in my son and he doesn’t need disciplining.

ITV

However Mr Nichol said although he loved his time in the army, France is talking about ’20 billion euros to put 600,000 people through national service’, adding:

That’s 20 billion a year. Jack doesn’t need anyone to teach him how to be a good person.

Ms Muldoon then said:

Leave the French to the French.

Ruth was quick to say there were volunteering projects already in place across the country – and military service would not benefit every individual required to sign up:

A service life might not suit them. They may see it as punishment?

In disagreement, Ms Muldoon said:

If they have that personality, then those people have to get a life and they have to start by saying, ‘It’s not all about me’.

With that, plenty of people went online to share their views on the debate.

Here’s what people were saying about it all on Twitter:

Larry Jones figured it could be ok, because he’d be able to become a war poet, writing:

Actually, national service could be alright. I could finally live out my dream of becoming a famous war poet by writing extensively about how I sh*t in a muddy hole somewhere outside Aldershot for two years and never once fired my rifle.

If I should die think only this of me, that there’s some corner of a field somewhere outside Aldershot that is for ever and indefinitely, still in Hampshire (although it could also potentially be in Surrey); there shall be in the rich earth a richer sh*t concealed.

And Peter, who insists he’s ‘English, not British’, was obviously on side and wrote:

This is exactly what this country needs. We need to instill some backbone and pride in our young.

Instead of them sitting on their arses moaning taking drugs or running around stabbing each other.

YES BRING BACK NATIONAL SERVICE.

Calm down, Peter.

Who agrees?