EXCLUSIVE: Author and historian David Swift told ReachPlc one group of Britons would be vulnerable to conscription in the event of World War 3
One specific group could be targeted in a UK conscription, a historian claims (Image: Getty)
One specific group of Brits could be targeted should conscription come into force, an expert claims. With the war in Ukraine, the regime in Iran potentially about to fall, China looking at Taiwan, and Donald Trump eyeing up Greenland, fears around a potential WW3 are tenser than ever.
Whilst countries bordering Russia like Finland and Estonia have been getting their populations battle ready for years, those further west are in the beginning stages of the same process.
The UK is one of those perceived to be behind the curve, with some claiming its army hasn’t been in a worse position for more than 70 years. Conscription, the compulsory enlistment into the armed forces, could therefore be its only option in the face of war.
Questions have been raised about the battle readiness of Britains’ armed forces (Image: Getty)
Author and historian David Swift suggested that the main target of any conscription policy would be graduates without a job and that people working in two sectors would be exempt from the draft.
He said: “Today, since there is such an urgent need to rebuild Britain’s defence industries and industrial capacity, I would expect that people in these important occupations would be exempt.
“Or even that people could be ‘conscripted’ into working in these industries, and that military conscription would target unemployed graduates – this would be very popular with lots of people and especially the Blue Labour thinkers behind Starmer.”
Mr Swift is not the only individual to comment on a potential UK conscription policy. Retired Army major and military historian Robert Lyman told the Express that he believed Britain’s armed forces hadn’t been this stripped back since the days of the Napoleonic wars.
Mr Lyman said: “Our armed forces have never been so denuded of power since the Napoleonic wars. It’s really hard to describe how poorly-prepared we are — we have an Army that is probably smaller than it was during the Napoleonic wars.
“We all talk about the need for technology and how cyber and drones will win the next war. All of that is palpable nonsense.
“The way that wars are won are by mass of intelligence, infantry, armour and artillery, well-coordinated using technology to assist them. “You can’t win wars using small armies.”
In the past 126 years there have only been two periods of conscription in the UK, the first was between 1916 and 1920 and the second was between 1939 and 1960.
