No, We Should Not Bring Back National Service

The military needs proper funding, not boomer fantasies

Some of you may be old enough to remember the show Lads’ Army. It was shown on ITV back in the day and the premise was that a group of young men experienced what it was like for people who had to partake in National Service. It was then replaced by Bad Lads’ Army which had the same premise but instead of it being normal members of the public it was a bunch of young wrong-uns being shouted at by a Sergeant Major – think Jeremy Kyle but more martial and slightly less exploitative. 

I bring this up as the question as to whether or not it should be brought back seems to pop up every year. Those proposing it often do so for spurious reasons but always because they think it’ll sort out the youth of the day who they always seem to think are deficient in some ill defined way. It’s happened again with the Jeremy Vine Show suggesting that it could help strengthen our armed forces. Bringing National Service back would be a terrible idea.

The first issue is the impact it would have on young people. As I’ve repeatedly pointed out in this blog, young people get a very tough deal in the UK as it is. Many of them sacrificed the best years of their lives during the lockdowns, have very little hope of owning a home, and have experienced a lost decade of stagnant wages and living standards. Forcing them to leave their families and friends and forgo educational and employment opportunities in order to do something which is unlikely to ever benefit them just to fulfil some boomer fantasy would be an incredibly cruel policy.

On a related note, it would also be terrible from a human capital perspective. A focus on developing human capital through investing in skills training will be key if we want to see the economy grow. It was encouraging to see today Jeremy Hunt prioritise education as a way to bring about economic growth. We rank poorly when compared to other countries when it comes to human capital and we need to get much better if we want to improve the life chances of young people and increase productivity. Forcing young people to take a few years out of their lives to play soldier will have a negative impact on the economy.

We are also seeing record job vacancies in the UK at the moment. National Service would exacerbate this problem as it would take a vast number of young and hard working people out of the labour market. This will create problems for businesses and further hamper productivity. We need young people engaged in useful and productive work if we’re going to see economic growth and have functioning public services. Boomers might like the idea of young people being forced to do National Service, but that won’t pay for their pensions.

Finally, it would be bad for the military. It’s true that recruitment is down and this is a deeply serious problem. The country needs to be able to defend itself and our allies from aggressors such as Putin’s Russia and potentially China. However, conscripting people into the forces and giving them a bit of training will achieve very little and may even be counter-productive. Unless we end up fighting a huge scale war of attrition then surely quality over quantity is best?

Nobody joins the military in order to get rich. However, money does matter and so if we want to continue to attract people to the armed forces then we need to make sure that they are well remunerated and will receive a decent pension. As such, pay will have to increase. 

It’s also important that our brave veterans receive all the help and support they need when they leave the forces. It’s positive that the UK now has a Minister for Veterans’ Affairs who attends Cabinet. This is important as it ensures that veterans are heard and represented. We need to make sure that they do receive mental health support if they are suffering from PTSD, have a home to live in, and help finding work. If we want to encourage people to make a big sacrifice for our country then it’s only right that we treat them properly afterwards.

We also need to continue to invest in the latest military equipment so that we are able to keep up with – handout-compete – hostile nations. We also obviously need to continue to commit to a Continuous at Sea Nuclear Deterrent to deter potential aggressors and punish our enemies if necessary.

All of this obviously costs money. The Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has not been shy in asking for more money and he should continue to bang the drum. Jeremy Hunt should do as he asks and increase the Defence Budget so that the military receives the funding it needs.

However, it’s not all about money and there is lots the government can do. For example, if we want a technologically advanced military then we need to be a country which fosters innovation. I’ve written before on how best to go about this, but long story short, we need to build science labs, millions of new homes in London and the South East, and build the Oxford-Cambridge Arc. If we want our military to be powerful enough to deter the likes of China and Russia then we need to get building and push for a massive uplift in spending on R&D up to five per cent of GDP by 2030.

We do need to boost our military but bringing back National Service would be a cruel and counterproductive way to go about it. We simply need to increase the Defence Budget and transform the economy into one which fosters and unleashes innovation.