All those young people who apparently benefited so enormously from lockdowns...owe the state. Of course there's definitely something in the idea. We should apply it to those genuinely owing the state for Covid: the Tory criminals and their buddies who used it as a cover for fraud & graft: £21 billion by some counts. So... I reckon there's enough to make up an entire penal battalion of rich fraudsters who could be sent to Ukraine as penance under the flag they so love: perhaps earmarking their presence carefully so our Russian neighbours can give them a splendid welcome.
Young people should welcome National Service It is time all young people – not just those turning 18 – repaid their debt to the nation. 29 May 2024 • 9:12am Hamish de Bretton-Gordon
The furore around the prospect of National Service in the next parliament has made the programme a political football to be kicked between an opportunistic Prime Minister, and a Labour party for which the defence of the realm is little more than a gimmick.
The hard reality is that this should not be seen as a social engineering project for the “youth” – although some are now so transfixed by their phones that enforced physical exercise is probably needed – but essential to protect our nation from another fascist tyrant marching West at an ever-increasing speed. National service should not just be confined to those turning 18. Those young adults who benefited so much from lockdown and furlough – their health and jobs preserved by an enormous national effort – should be give an opportunity to thank their elders for their sacrifices.
The major lesson for Britain’s defence which we are learning from the battles in Ukraine is that mass has a quality all of its own – and one that is particularly important if your foe is Russia, which it is. Putin has lost staggering numbers of men and tanks in this conflict but shows no sign of running out of either.
Any person with a jot of military knowledge – and there are precious few on the campaign trail – knows the best way to avoid war in Europe is to prepare for it. Our current conventional defence has been so pared down following the Cold War “peace dividend” that it is no longer a deterrent. Judging by the combat in Ukraine, the 72,000 regular British Army would likely be exhausted in 6-8 weeks of fighting. There is no second echelon, and Putin knows this. This must change.
As the anniversary of D-Day approaches this week, we should reflect on how the last tyrant was defeated. Hitler relied on technology and built a small number of state of the art, world beating Tiger tanks. They were overrun and sent packing by the far greater number of serviceable, mass produced Allied tanks. Tech is important, but mass matters too.
Many of the even older armchair generals are rightly saying that we cannot afford to have the regular army uprooted by the envisaged National Service, and here they are correct. But we have a massive cohort of veterans who are currently vastly underused by the state. There are over 100,000 of us ready and able to lean into this challenge of shaping our young into a viable fighting force that can add an effective edge to our conventional deterrence. We may not be as fast or as strong as we once were, but we’ve all marched to the sound of the drums, fought the nation’s enemies and are willing to offer our experience to the effort.
Putin and his gangsters are readying their nuclear missiles, using chemical weapons on the frontlines and putting the Russian economy on a war footing. Nobody who studies, or at least understands Putin thinks he will stop in Ukraine. Finland, Sweden and Norway, all liberal countries, maintain National Service because they know a white flag to Putin is more like a green flag to the Kremlin to crack on.
The very able General Patrick Saunders, Chief of the General Staff, told Parliament and the Nation we required a national citizens army over 6 months ago. Now the Tories appear to get it. Labour, meanwhile, is still effectively encouraging Putin to march west.
Of course, the best way to ensure electoral success is to promise the sunny uplands of economic success, and peace in our time. National service is an irritating intrusion on this narrative. But the best way to secure peace is to prepare for war. Get defence of the nation wrong and the cost-of-living crisis will quickly become horrifically irrelevant. As the D-Day commemorations take place, we must learn from the past – and we must not repeat its mistakes.
Farcical. The young, who faced comparatively little risk from the pandemic, were the ones who sacrificed health, economic prosperity, education, sanity, in many cases bodily autonomy, thinking they were doing so for the elderly, or some quaint old-fashioned idea called 'society' that elites gave up pretending to care about decades ago. And this dipshit thinks they'll be willing to 'thank their elders' for the 'sacrifice' of having steady full time employment, the possibility of getting a mortgage and a house that increased 400% in value over the course of 20-30 years etc etc, by volunteering for the psychotic british armed forces?
F* off back to the 77th brigade, spook adjacent keyboard warrior. 'Fast or strong as we once were'? - pull the other one mate, the only 'nation's enemy' you've fought were spotty internet trolls a thousand miles away.
Correction: it appears he 'saw active service' in the 1991 invasion of Iraq, ie: killing poor brown people in a punitive neocolonial venture from the safety of his tank.
Also, 'spotty internet trolls' suggests that they were indeed national enemies, whereas the 77th brigade's mission is psyops and propaganda, including against UK citizens:
"British-made tanks are about to sweep Putin’s conscripts aside"
With the immortal lines:
"...As a former tank commander, I can say one thing for certain: Putin’s demoralised conscripts are utterly unprepared for the shock action now hitting their lines. Ukrainian armoured formations are beginning to meet Russian forces in battle, and they are going to pulverise Russia’s defensive lines."
-Not to forget the follow ups:
"The tank’s critics are about to be humiliated in Ukraine" "...Russia has shown the world how not to do armoured warfare, but Challenger 2 will help Ukraine triumph..."
...and the last in his "Tank" oevre: the rip-roaring Fantasy -
"Ummm...The Challenger 2 tank crew...survived...maybe..."
Hamish is currently rumoured to be working on a new "Mystery" epic:
Perrett, Bryan, The Valentine in North Africa 1942–43 (1972) Arms & Armour Press, London 978-0-7110-0262-3
"After only 14 days of acclimatisation and without any infantry support training, the [23rd Army Tank] brigade was chosen to reinforce an attack by XXX Corps during the Second Battle of Ruweisat Ridge, part of the First Battle of El Alamein. The regiments failed to locate lanes cleared by the leading units through Axis minefields and were virtually annihilated by German anti-tank fire while in the minefield. The brigade had mustered 122 Valentines and 18 Matildas for the attack but at day's end, had lost 116 tanks; the tank crews suffered 44 per cent killed or wounded." [British armoured tactics at their worst.]The last working-class hero in England.
Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018 Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021
Now that militarising da yoof has been widely mooted, it'll stay around like a lift fart nm
More importantly, and thanks for diverting my attention, this conversation, with Ali Abunimah, is truly a jewel. All about settler colonialism. The essence is, to my mind, how far are these people being genocided in each of these colonies? It's not a new subject for lil' mua. Some determined research in Sydney library + visits to local communities did the trick in 90's, for Oz anyways. As a note, research in demographics over time would be interesting to describe *that* bit of evidence/info. Just bare facts. Not sure what I was thinking then, but seems to be on a same trajectory now. In fact, I have developed a modest research proj on that theme fwiw.
on June 12, 2024, 5:43 pm