No need for National Service now despite reader's call - Yorkshire Post Letters

YOUR correspondent Peter Hyde (The Yorkshire Post, May 12) is to be congratulated for making a success of his life after his National Service, despite his lack of ambition beforehand.

I know of several people who, similarly, have said that being in the armed forces “made” them.

However, his suggestion that bringing back National Service would enable today’s young people “to improve their lives as a whole” is no longer viable.

The military today is totally different from what it was in Mr Hyde’s day. In this technological age its members are highly trained professionals and the last thing needed is reluctant conscripts.

However, if National Service meant performing work to assist people in the community, that might be worth considering.

From: John G Davies, Alma Terrace, East Morton, Keighley.

As a “woke warrior”, I have to question Peter Hyde’s advocacy of bringing back National Service to give a sense of discipline to today’s youngsters.

From his biography, there seems to be little connection between serving in the RAF, becoming a police officer and then a solicitor’s clerk, beyond a few fortuitous coincidences.

The old saying from National Service times, “If it moves salute it; if it doesn’t paint it white” indicates the nature of the “discipline”, i.e. keep the recruits occupied so they don’t cause trouble.