Anton Savage: The only people doing mandatory national service should be ex-British prime ministers

Originally published in the Business Post.
 
The latest election campaign wheeze from Rishi Sunak positions a country’s armed forces as a cross between borstal and the scouts.

Rishi Sunak’s plan to introduce national service in Britain will obviously not happen, largely because the current requirement for him to provide a national service (in the form of being prime minister) will be permanently rescinded in the upcoming election.

This will draw to a close a period of British politics best described as ice-cream and fascism; give the electorate whatever treat they want and if that treat happens to be bigotry, all the better.

The zenith of this period is the populist exercise of exporting asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Undoubtedly some of the biggest fans of this planned deportation would prefer if asylum seekers could just be shot in the street, but that’s too big a reach, even for the Conservatives.

Click here for full article.