Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s pledge of a mandatory National Service has met with a mixed reception since the announcement. Many think we may risk “losing an entire generation of voters” because of this.
Some Conservative voters suspect this policy would engender national pride. Some Gen Zs have denounced it on TikTok because they refuse to “fight any war”.
As a Conservative, I applaud the National Service policy; this is a generation-defining initiative that shapes the future of our country. If rolled out successfully, this will be Sunak’s enduring legacy, leaving a positive imprint in our social fabric. I would even argue that every country needs National Service.
What we already know is that:
- Military pathway: when turned 18, young adults would be eligible to apply for military training through various tests. Approximately 30,000 young adults would be selected and spend a year full-time in the armed forces. This pathway would not involve combat, instead, it offers training in logistics and cyber security etc.
- Community service: 25 days a year serving in local placement organisations such as the police, the fire service, the NHS, or charities that work with older isolated people. Most young adults are expected to join this pathway.
- Exemptions: under discussion.
- Cost: currently estimated at £2.5bn a year. Funding comes from cracking down on tax evasion and avoidance, as well as the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Why am I in favour of National Service? First and foremost, it teaches young adults discipline and fosters a sense of purpose at the start of adulthood. Finding a purpose in life is crucial regardless of what you might end up pursuing later in life.
I hope what young adults will also discover, among many other things, is that that sense of purpose comes from love. Our life in this world is defined by how much we love and care for others.
No-one put it better than Thomas Aquinas when he said that love is “to will the good of the other” – and the greatest act of love is laying down one’s life for others. Our current society places too much emphasis on ‘self’, with insufficient care and attention for ‘others’ – raising the risk of an entitled, even selfish generation coming into positions of prominence, responsibility and power in the middle years of this century.
Those undertaking National Service will discover their own true sense of purpose through their acts of service and duty. It will encourage them to learn to prioritise and care for ‘others’ for a year at the very onset of their adulthood, which will prove valuable as they begin to examine for themselves their individual sense of ‘self’.
Britain is a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic nation. There’s no better way of uniting and assimilating a generation than a collective scheme of uniformed service. I watched my mother spend 45 years of her life working as a doctor. I learned service by heart, and it does affect how I feel about the act of service.
I spoke to a dear friend who enlisted in the Swiss Armed Forces after high school. Switzerland has mandatory military service for all the abled-bodied male Swiss nationals. Upon turning 18, you are required to spend a minimum of 300 days in the Swiss Army. My friend volunteered for nearly 500 days, and eventually became a Chief Master Sergeant in the Swiss Air Force.
I asked why he decided to serve beyond the required term. His answers were simple: you learn discipline, responsibility and care for others, and you earn for yourself some financial stability to help build the next stage of your early working life.
Students/unemployed conscripts receive up to CHF 90 a day for their service in the Army. For a total of 300 days’ military service, you can end up with a nest egg as a down payment towards your university fees, or provide help with launching a career.
For those who are employed already at the point of conscription, the employer will pay 80 per cent of their salary for the period of their service. This spending is then reimbursed to the employer by the Swiss government.
I imagine the stipend likely to be on offer to our own serving young adults may not be quite as attractive as that provided by the Swiss Army. After all, Switzerland’s GDP per capital is twice that of the UK. But I do not doubt for one minute that the discipline and responsibility one will take away from this formative experience will be remarkable.
My friend recounts his days of military service with a great sense of pride. In addition to learning many critical life and career skills, such as people management, negotiation, conflict management, communication, and so on, he said camaraderie was absolutely the highlight of his time in the military.
You sleep in the same room with 20 other conscripts, cook and break bread together, train in the sub-zero Swiss mountain weather while carrying 50KG of equipment on your shoulders. “That’s where I became a man,” he said.
Your coming-of-age moment is not curling up on your parents’ sofa reading Sally Rooney’s novels. That moment is when you are out there, rain or shine, learning about the world and yourself through performing service to others.
For those who are concerned that the UK’s National Service will consign all 18-year-olds to the battlefield, the answer is categorically no. In fact, only four per cent of this demographic cohort would be selected to attend the military pathway based on the current estimate and the 2021 census, when the population aged 18 in England and Wales was less than 720,000. Most of the eligible young adults are likely to end up undertaking some form of community service, for just 25 days a year.
I should, however, like to see more young adults pursuing the military pathway, though. I know running through the woods of Pirbright will feel rather different from running through the Alps filling your lungs with clean Swiss mountain air. But trust me, through these trials and challenges, you will become a better version of yourself, and our country will be a better and safer place because of you.
To all the young adults reading this article: your country needs you. You should serve. You should get excited and take pride in serving – for God, King, and Country.
The post Hillary Su: Done right, National Service provides fantastic opportunities to young people appeared first on Conservative Home.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Hillary Su
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, http://www.conservativehome.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.