Why the Tories' national service idea is unworkable

When the Tories start talking about national service they really are grasping at straws. The concept might possibly appeal to some older voters nostalgic for an earlier time, but Rishi Sunak’s ideas are quite different from the military conscription of young men that lasted from 1949 to 1963.

Let’s put aside the 30,000 or so ‘selective’ military placements for the ‘brightest and the best’. Yes, young people can offer much to the nation’s approach to cyber security and the defence of our IT infrastructure against external threats. Fresh minds see solutions that others may not. But if that isn’t happening already, what has the government been doing for the past 14 years? It would be a double tragedy if our sharpest youngsters have been frittering their time away playing computer games when they could have been doing something vital to help defend the nation.

Good luck to the army of adults who will need to plan around three quarters of a million placements

The national service diet proposed for the other 96 per cent of the cohort is somewhat different: ‘community volunteering’ for one weekend a month apparently, except that it will not be voluntary. Perhaps