Conscription, a theme that seems to be talked about more frequently in recent times. I personally was, until recently, against any form of conscription, having lived in Germany for a long time now and seeing the standards of the conscripts in the Bundeswehr, I felt it would result in a watering down of standards within the Army. However I am increasingly warming to the idea, the Army in particular and the military in general has become, for the vast majority of the population, something that "someone else" does, we have lost to a large extent our connection to the general population of the UK and to a similar extent their support. Through this separation the general population has a very warped idea of who we are and what we do, relying as they do on the media there are stereotypes galore most of them negative.
IF, and it is a big if, conscription were to return then it must be done intelligently, the time served must be long enough to allow the conscript to contribute positively to the service, ie at the very least 1 years service (not the 8 months that conscripts usually serve here) and must be accompanied by incentives such as training on completion of service that can be taken into civilian life, a form of resettlement training.
I feel that conscription, if implemented correctly could lead to an improvement within the military, to a better understanding and acceptance of the military within the general population and ultimately to an improvement of standards within the UK as a whole. It may also lead to the likes of BLiar thinking before they treat us as their playthings.
I believe that, gradually, the advantages of conscription are beginning to outweigh the disadvantages.