{"id":288360,"date":"2024-05-28T06:40:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T06:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=288360"},"modified":"2024-05-30T06:43:05","modified_gmt":"2024-05-30T06:43:05","slug":"no-theyre-probably-not-going-to-bring-back-national-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=288360","title":{"rendered":"No, they\u2019re (probably) not going to bring back National Service."},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Kit Knightley \u2013 Off-Guardian May 27, 2024<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>As you all know, the UK is in the throes of campaigning following the announcement of an <a href=\"https:\/\/off-guardian.org\/2024\/05\/22\/uk-general-election-date-announced\/\">\u201celection\u201d on July 4th<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>One particular campaign promise has already caused a huge stir, with incumbent PM Rishi Sunak pledging to re-introduce National Service \u2013 mandatory military or some other community service \u2013 should the Conservatives win:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Opportunity. Community. Security.<\/p>\n<p>This is why I would introduce a bold new model of National\u00a0Service \ud83d\udc47 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/bNXTLwwBXV\">pic.twitter.com\/bNXTLwwBXV<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RishiSunak\/status\/1794625683399852530?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 26, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s caused a huge backlash already, with memes and videos circulating on social media either mocking or protesting the plan.<\/p>\n<p>Not even the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-13462137\/rishi-sunak-national-service-open-doors-teenagers-university.html\">usual Tory defenders in the media<\/a> have come to the governments aid, with defense of the policy relegated to joke hate-figures like <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TalkTV\/status\/1795008619542348192\">Stanley Johnson<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Even the UK military is said to be <a href=\"https:\/\/inews.co.uk\/news\/military-figures-divided-national-service-plan-3075651\">\u201cdivided\u201d<\/a> over support for the scheme, with one ex-military Chief supposedly calling it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dumptheguardian.com\/politics\/article\/2024\/may\/26\/rishi-sunaks-national-service-pledge-is-bonkers-says-ex-military-chief\">\u201cbonkers\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026and despite this backlash, the Tories have doubled down. Claiming that children and parents could face fines and criminal prosecution <a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/politics\/2024\/05\/27\/parents-could-be-fined-children-refuse-national-service\/\">for refusing to participate<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>So, will the Tories really do it?<\/p>\n<p>Almost certainly not. For two reasons.<\/p>\n<p>1) They don\u2019t really want to.<br \/>\n2) They won\u2019t have the opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>This is simply confirmation that the powers-that-be have already decided Labour will almost certainly \u201cwin\u201d the \u201celection\u201d in July.<\/p>\n<p>Sunak couldn\u2019t more obviously have signaled the Tories are throwing the race if he\u2019d included the re-introduction of slavery, cancelling Christmas and banning puppies in his manifesto.<\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s not just about throwing the vote, it\u2019s also about controlling the conversation. Talk of national service sets up that the country is on some kind of war footing and sells \u00a0the reality of an \u201cimpending WW3\u201d narrative. Something that is also being sold very hard right now. After all nothing rationalizes perpetual deprivation and sells Fear better than a good old war.<\/p>\n<p>Further, it opens the door for Labour to offer some other \u201csolution\u201d. They will claim that the UK military does need to \u201cmodernise\u201d in response to the \u201cRussian threat\u201d, but that national service is \u201can old fashioned response\u201d, or something similar.<\/p>\n<p>Then the newly elected Labour government will dedicate billions in tax payer revenue to some other military program, \u201cupdating our nuclear deterrent\u201d or funding cyber warfare programs to \u201ccombat misinformation\u201d or sending more \u201caid\u201d to Ukraine or all of the above.<\/p>\n<p>And everyone will be alright with it because <em>\u201cwell, at least they didn\u2019t bring back national service\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s an ancient manipulation tactic: Ask for something you don\u2019t want, only to get \u201ctalked down\u201d to the alternative you wanted all along. It\u2019s a technique I like to call <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3UCBPpcqL10\">Lisa\u2019s Limousine<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>So let\u2019s be clear: <em>No, they\u2019re almost certainly not going to introduce National Service.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I doubt they have either the desire or intention to do so. National Service is a topic introduced to the national political discussion <em>because<\/em> it\u2019s so unpopular, because it sells an agenda, because it almost certainly opens the door for an emphatic Labour victory and because it sets up a secondary bait-and-switch \u201csolution\u201d down the line.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>Support Off-Guardian:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ko-fi.com\/offguardian\">Ko-fi<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.subscribestar.com\/offguardian\">Subscribestar<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/donate\/?hosted_button_id=CKFB3MH8CGB9U\">Paypal<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/off-guardian.org\/2024\/05\/27\/no-theyre-probably-not-going-to-bring-back-national-service\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kit Knightley on what Rishi Sunak actually means when he says that if the conservatives win the election they will bring back National Service<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":99111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-288360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Current_Affairs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=288360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288361,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288360\/revisions\/288361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/99111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=288360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=288360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=288360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}