Donald Trump shows why UK needs national service (Image: Getty)
America is sick to death of defending Europe. Why, they ask, should 600 million Europeans need 330 million Americans to defend them against 140 million Russians who can’t defeat 40 million Ukrainians? Good question. It’s time for Europeans, including us, to step up. Germany knows this, and is considering national service. Finland, which has an 800-mile border with Russia, has had national service for all young men for decades. Other European countries have it too, including Austria, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. It is hardly a left-field, terrifying notion.
This isn’t about war with Russia. It’s about preventing it. If there’s one thing that Putin loves, it’s weakness in his enemies, which he attacks with laser focus. But square up to him with strength? Then he’s not so keen. So, let’s stop moaning and start spending. Britain needs to spend at least £28 billion more on defence, meaning painful cuts elsewhere. Though it’ll be a whole lot less painful than war.
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If we don’t, then Putin will know for sure what he already senses: that Britain and its close neighbours have become soft. We work ourselves up into a giant lather of indignation about woke trivialities like nasty social media posts, demanding more and more government handouts for our pet obsessions and benefits handouts, and all the while ignoring the gigantic, ever-growing threat that could, if we’re not careful, be literally civilisation-destroying.
The woke mob will all look pretty darn stupid if we give Russian troops the chance to advance. They’d quickly realise that freedom ain’t free.
And what other choice do we have? It’s clear we’re going to fall out with America over Greenland. The trans-Atlantic alliance, and NATO as a whole, is splintering before our eyes. Instead of resenting yanks who are overfed, over-sexed and over here, we’ll be yearning for the days when plane loads of them arrived.
Finland is a country I know well, visiting it every summer for family reasons. And young men there willingly spend a year in national service, usually straight after school, making sure the country is prepared to fight. They don’t resent it; they welcome it, and learn a whole bunch of life skills in the process.
What would a year of similar service do for our youngsters, who are currently struggling to get on the employment ladder? It could be life-changing.
Meanwhile, in these more egalitarian days, national service can, perhaps should, be for men and women equally. And it doesn’t need to be front-line stuff for everyone. Finnish national service includes working in hospitals and fire brigades.
I can hear the cries of resentment. Why should I be forced into service for a country I’m not proud of, they might ask. It’s not fair, they might say. Well, maybe it isn’t, and yes, it’s perfectly true that youngsters last had to do national service in this country in 1960. But we are now getting to crisis point.
Recent surveys have been utterly horrifying. Only 41% of youngsters say they’re proud of Britain. Only 11% say they’d fight for Britain. Well, that’s not surprising given that we constantly trash-talk our own history. But let’s remember that in 1933 the Oxford Union passed this motion: “That this House will under no circumstances fight for King and Country”. In the end they did, and saved Europe in the process.
The world has changed massively since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and even more with Trump’s second election win. If we sit on our hands, we’ll get our heads shot off. Now’s no time for niceties. Now’s the time to act.