This National Service thing is proving to be a fantastic dead cat bounce scheme. It won't change anybody's mind either way, and hardly anybody thinks they will even do it, but this thread has barely mentioned how badly everything is actually goingin the real country for the better part of 2 days.
Maybe, but it does highlight how the Tories are mostly coming up with (as one person described it) more ways of punishing people they don't like.
18 year olds are less likely to vote for them (although before this I suspect more would have than after this, it's also likely to show young people that "they're not so the same" and so may make them more likely to vote), so they bring this in.
Small boats are something they can be tough on (but it's actually a tiny amount of the net migration numbers), but rather than making it so people don't have to risk their life to get here they're moving a tiny number of the tiny number to another country. Even if Rwanda were taking 200 a year (Rwanda has previously said 1,000 over the five year trail), well there was 45,000 small boat crossing in 2023, so that's a 1:225 chance of being removed from the UK. That's less likely (1:216) than rolling 6 on a pair of dice three times in a row.
That's almost as likely as, at random, one child from a junior school with 2 forms per year group being picked (1:240). In that setting, most parents wouldn't be overly concerned that it would be their child, or even that it was someone that their child was particularly close to.
LBQT+ is something else they've picked up on, as are "benefits scroungers", those striking/protesting (unless it's farmers of fishing), eating tofu, being a lawyer who follows the law, live in London (as everyone who does is clearly part of the elite) have a religious beliefs (unless they happen to align with ours) and there's probably more. The problem with such policies is that, whilst someone may currently part of the "in crowd", it doesn't take a lot for them to not be:
Get made redundant.
Get ill.
Have a child, spouse/partner, parent or other close person which has a health issue who needs significant care.
Be involved in an accident.
Continue to love a child or friend who comes out a LBQT+
Not accept a 0.5% pay rise when inflation is running at 3% and ask for something closer to 5% (as you've already had 5 years of 0.5% pay rises whilst inflation had been running at an average of 3%, so have already effectively taken a 13% pay cut) - especially if you see the company making reasonable profits
Find that the home counties (or even anywhere south of Watford Gap) are basically London anyway when it comes to being part of the elite.
Fall in love with someone who has recent ancestry which isn't British (your probably fine if they can trace back on both sides for 20 generations and their all British, at a push maybe a bit of Irish).
Work in an industry where wages have kept up with inflation or worse risen ever so slightly (of course if you're making a lot of money by being a CEO, or from shares that's different) as you're the reason that inflation is so high (and nothing to do with other factors).
Realise that you should, because of your religious beliefs, have compassion for the sick, widows, orphans and aliens (as a starter that should include all Christians - although many who want a "Christian country" haven't read that bit in the bible; mostly because they haven't read the Bible, other than they may have been told a few Bible stories, but not the good Samaritan) and decide to do something about it.
That's before some other wedge issue comes up.
There's a reason that it's such a big subject of conversation, whilst it wont impact most people and may not even impact how many will vote, it will impact the way floating voters think and it's likely to shift a lot of the "don't knows" a bit further away from voting Tory. In some seats a few hundred shifting from "I don't know but voting Tory" to "I don't know but voting for someone other" could mean a lose for the current Tory MP.
www.bbc.com
www.bbc.co.uk
