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Conscription - Do you think it could happen in the 21st century?.

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PeterC

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I 'escaped' conscription by a few years first time round, which I was very pleased about, even though I'd been in the army cadet force at school (not quite compulsory in theory, only in practice!)
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I was in the corps at school as well. I don't think that my ability to strip down and clean a .303 Lee Enfield will be much use in a future conflict though. I did learn to clean my shoes, iron a shirt and sew on a button by my early teens as my mother's response to these needs was always "you won't have me to do that for you when you are called up!"
 
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Jonny

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Johnuk123 said:
There are and always have been contingency measures to bring back conscription within days in the event of a major conflict.
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America has a selective service system, although whether it could be used is another matter. Britain doesn't have such a system though, at least overtly, and it would be hard to track most people down en masse in under a month with the records and communication systems (post and/or telephone) that are available and considered to be sufficiently reliable.
 
Johnuk123

Johnuk123

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Jonny said:
America has a selective service system, although whether it could be used is another matter. Britain doesn't have such a system though, at least overtly, and it would be hard to track most people down en masse in under a month with the records and communication systems (post and/or telephone) that are available and considered to be sufficiently reliable.
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I didn't mean that people would be conscripted in days but the legislation put in place within a state of emergency to enlist people within a short time.
 
Lankyline

Lankyline

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STEVIEBOY1 said:
Yes, those were the programmes. Agree with you about the Corporals, they were great, there was a good Sergeant in it as well.

I think some of the "Conscripts" like the regime as it was the first time really that some of them had any male role models to look up to.

The above mentioned Corporals & Sgt reminded me of my PT Masters at school in the 1960s & 1970s.!
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You want to try having an ex CSM as a father, talk about control freak, thought life was one big parade ground !

I will add though that he was in the Grenadier Guards and thought that only a professionally trained army was the way to go and that conscription was only effective if that training was good enough to provide an effective fighting force and help reduce needless casualties. You have to take into account though that his views are based on combat experience and his years of being a training instructor, inc Sandhurst
 
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Busaholic

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Johnuk123 said:
Flat feet aren't an automatic refusal any more. plenty of servicemen get by just fine.
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I had (and have) flat feet, size 12, and it didn't get me out of anything in the CCF, 25 mile route marches, up Ben Nevis, etc. That was until I lost my big toenail rock climbing and, to avoid gangrene, the toenail bed was removed. Then I was 'excused boots', which is a phrase well-known from the Bootsie 'n' Snudge TV series now only remembered by those of us who can recall the original Tony Hancock television series too.
 
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