Stroud MP Dr Simon Opher insists conscription isn’t the answer after a Labour colleague called for ‘serious discussions’ about calling up young people into the armed services.
Paulette Hamilton, MP for Birmingham Erdington waded into the debate on conscription, she told Channel 5’s Jeremy Vine show: “Conscription is not something I would have thought about until all of this has blown up. But I do think we need to start the serious discussions around conscription. Because young people are not engaged but they’re going to have to because our borders are being threatened and you cannot continue to bury your head in the sand.
“My parents and grandparents’ generation fought for this country and enabled us to have 70 odd years where we have had relative peace and harmony. It is being threatened at the moment. So the younger generation cannot continue to say we are not going to engage because I think they’re going to have to be, we’re going to have to have the discussions to say, look, something needs to change. And at the moment, we haven’t got the boots to put on the ground. But those boots, some way, some how, we need to start to talk about how that will happen, if it happens at all.”
Responding to his Labour counterpart, Dr Opher told Stroud Times: “Paulette has correctly highlighted some issues, but I don’t think that conscription is the answer.
“Warfare today is more about hi tech equipment, IT and intelligence rather than numbers of soldiers on the front line. We need to reverse the years of Tory disinterest in maintaining professional, properly paid armed services and make sure that we are ready for the next war, not the last.
“At the same time we need to understand why young people feel disenfranchised and tackle the causes. More than any other group in society, they are at the sharp end of the housing crisis and economic uncertainty. Mental health is a huge issue, and they are more isolated than previous generations, largely due to the effects of social media and, to a degree, the internet itself.”
