National service is just a hastily dreamt-up election gimmick
It is an insult to our intelligence to pretend this is anything more than a hastily dreamt-up election gimmick, says Fergus Kelly
Who would have thought only as recently as last month that this week’s marking of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings would coincide with a debate about bringing back national service?
The stirring sight of the old soldiers gathering on the Normandy beaches for a final salute, not just to their fallen comrades but their own heroic feats, could not provide a sharper contrast to those of us who have come after them.
I’m part of the post-war baby boom, one of the most fortunate generations in history. Not only were we never called upon to offer our lives in defence of the country, we grew up with the security net of the emerging welfare state, cheap mass travel, and the unprecedented prosperity of the consumer society.
We also grew up with perhaps a clearer sense of the sacrifices that had been made on our behalf, because the wartime generation were our direct ancestors and all around us. My dad was among the last previous generation to undergo national service.
The chasm between that generation and the present one could scarcely be wider. I feel just as fortunate not to be young and starting out today as I do that I was born too late to be called up. Today’s generation are bombarded, day in, day out, on television and social media with the message that they are mentally fragile, that masculinity is “toxic”, and that safety is much more important than freedom.
So I don’t deride the concept of national service out of hand, as I accept the sense of purpose and comradeship it might introduce to today’s young.
What I do take issue with is the insult to our intelligence that this is anything more than a hastily dreamt-up election gimmick. If the Conservatives had been serious about our defence over the past 14 years in office, we would not have an army at its smallest since Napoleonic times, its morale and recruitment both rock bottom, or aircraft carriers without any aircraft, that can barely get out of port before breaking down.
Swapping such shameful neglect for the sort of serious and consistent defence spending required would not just have been the best commitment to today’s generation; it would have provided the most honourable tribute too to the old boys gathering one more time in northern France this week.
