Forums Forums National News VOTE Should Britain bring back National Service?

National Service was a life-changing experience for many




COME the end of the Second World War, and many young men breathed a sigh of relief. They would not be called up into the Armed Forces after all.

More fool them. The demands of a peacetime Army spread out across the old British Empire, plus the occupation forces in Germany, were more than could be met by volunteers alone.

It was to be 1960 before the last batch of conscripts signed up, and 1963, with the Swinging Sixties well under way, before the final reluctant soldier left the Army.

For most, it was to be a love-hate relationship. The Army – and most conscripts were in the Army, rather than the Navy or Air Force – could seem to be an unfeeling and unfair institution, but it was also a substitute family for those who were leaving home for the first time. There are many affectionate memories, perhaps made a bit warmer by the passage of time.

Many conscripts were given chances during their military service they would not have had in civilian life.

Anyone with a performing talent was likely to be hauled into forces’ entertainment. Typical of the wartime generation were the four key members of the Goon show in the 1950s, Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine. Many an ex-conscript recognised the sheer madness of the military in the Goons’ anarchic humour, and Milligan’s war memoirs went on to become comedy classics.

In post-war years, musicians like Bill Wyman, right, later of the Rolling Stones, would have the freedom to perform while in the Army, while the Wirral-born DJ John Peel, top, discovered rock and troll from Armed Forces Radio while serving as a radar operator in the late 1950s.

Sport was always a way of avoiding the worst boredom of Army life. The Army encouraged it, as it kept people fit and encouraged leadership – or at least that was the theory.

Certainly, nearly all the top footballers of the day passed through the Army’s hands before turning professional. Many of the English World Cup winning side of 1966 had done their spell in the Army, including Liverpool’s Roger Hunt and Bobby Charlton of Manchester United.

They may all have hated it at the time – but many now appreciate the chances that an initially unwanted spell in the military gave them.


THE POST

Should Britain bring back National Service? single choice
	YES
	NO
Votes accepted starting: 14th Dec 2009 2:01pm You must vote before you can view the results of this poll.

I'll be honest and admit to being a little ****!!! or at least I was in my teens / early 20's.

I reckon it's a good idea - maybe I wouldn't have been so bad in my youth if I'd had the discipline of the Army to straighten me out a bit?

Lost my father when I was very young so didn't have him to fall back on either ( maybe that was the cause or maybe it would just be classed as an easy excuse ) but either way, I reckon my life would have been so much different if National Service was in place.

The "older" generation who were forced into it seem to be so much more respectful towards other people and those in authority - these days, youngsters couldn't give a t*ss who they speak to or how they speak to them.
It scares me to think that one day, they will eventually be running the country.

So, YES!! I think it's a good idea.

Hoseman agrees and bring back the death penalty, stop being so bloody namby pamby Britain, hit the ... hard caus theyre taking the p*ss!!

good shout... we were just discussing this in work before

Yep - agreed

My grandad was called up for national service. not quite as nice as you would think, they used to use them as lab rats.

They tested the effects of bombs on his troop on Christmas island. My grandad still has radiation poisoning and the vast majority of the others he was with have died of cancer.

The british government are the only ones who havn't paid conpensation for it.

In theory yes but in reality by the time the little scrotes have reached 16 years old, the rot is well and truly set.
The problem starts way before that.
Parents need to be held responsible for their childs actions - if the child is too young to be prosecuted then the parents should be.
Give the schools and the police back the authority they once had to discipline children.
Stop raising kids to beleive they are entitled to respect without doing anything to earn it
It's only once all these things are sorted will we say goodbye to the feral generation we are cultivating right now.
*steps down from soap box*

National Service was never designed to sort out undesirables and scumbags, that society couldn't. The reasons for it is explained in the article. Why should we unload these people on the military. If we want them out of society, just build more prisons and hand out stiffer sentences until the penny drops with them.

As for bringing back hanging, can anyone tell me when your sons and daughters are wrongly arrested, wrongly convicted and hung, how do we bring them back?

Wot you mean sons and daughters, i mean all the little scrotes that realy p*ss ME off!!!

Worked in the past, you know...The good old days!!
Sheriff Joe has the right idea of how to deal with trouble!!
Check him out on Google and U Tube

Pink underwear, He'll do.

I'll go 100% with the Sheriff Joe approach but would NOT want to have proper troops put at any sort of additional risk because they have to accommodate scallies within their ranks. The services have enough problems coping with the inadequacies of the politicians

Snod

Snod, the term scallys can always be substituted in the military by the word CANNONFODDER!!!

Some uses would be
Clearing land mines, blindfolded!
Hanging from the monkey bars and used as bayonet practice!
Make them infiltrate enemy lines..in a Union Jack T shirt!
Biological warfare experiments..give the lab rats the guns!!
Line their hoodies with a material that attracts lead on the battlefield!

the scally's are already in the army {NEW LABOURS ARMY}they will always be dependant on the welfare state, so will be NEW LABOUR supports all there life.

That's some of the biggest load of bollocks I've ever heard on this forum, and it's up against some pretty stiff competition.

Served with the last National Service blokes in the 50's and 60's, it's hard to get a reluctant rebel to do anything, well not then because you just belted them into submission. If it was tried now you'd end up inside (when I rejoined years later and did it I was given a rollicking "We don't do it that way any more.") Either way they had to be sorted either physically or thru the disciplinary system. If they were bigger than you then you used the disciplinary method. we all rubbed along ok though.
Some National Service blokes signed on for regular service but a lot of that was because they were on less money, but some went on to pension. Proper prisons and sentences would sort a lot of stuff out, in todays paper it was reported that a lot of them have satellite tv, stap me!