I recently saw a post on a local community Facebook group. You know the sort of groups; the ones where children are criticised for not playing outside any more, then are further criticised when they exist in public spaces on bikes and whatnot.

This time, there was a legitimate gripe. Some children were throwing eggs at passersby. I’m not sure if the issue was the aggression or the criminal waste of eggs in This Economy™.

Either way, it didn’t take long for someone to come along and opine that what these children really need is national service. I always find this hilarious when someone suggests it because national service ended in 1963. The last man to complete his national service was Richard Vaughan. I’m not sure if he’s alive today, but if he is, he’d be 88 years old.

I therefore find it incredibly rich that you have 50 to 70 year olds pushing for national service for the youth of today when they themselves did not go through it. Not only that, but the intergenerational asset-stripping they have carried out is the reason that there is less money today for services for these children, and the reason that they will be the first generation to leave their children worse off than they were.

Boots on Other Feet

They bay for boots and shaved-off heads from armchairs plush and warm,
enraptured by a boomer fantasy of youth in uniform.
They snarl that soft modern kids require a taste of war,
to mend the very Britain that they helped to break before.

Yet check the dates, you hypocrites, before you bark and shout:
you missed the draft by decades, never saw a single scout.
Conscription ended sixty-three, you got the summer breeze,
the peace, the grants, the houses, and the cushioned life of ease.

You dodged the drill and raised your drinks to freedom in your day,
then demand that modern children pay the debts you didn’t pay.
It’s easy preaching discipline and forced nobility,
when someone else’s child has to give up their liberty.