Why won’t young people join the military? The armed forces have been trying to solve the problem for years. They have tried using YouTube influencers. They have ventured on to Fortnite (and made a tactical withdrawal). They have attempted to sell themselves as a sort of self-improvement boot camp, with campaigns promising “A Better You” and “Confidence That Lasts A Lifetime”. They have tried reassuring young people that it will accept them, even with all their terrible problems. “Phone Zombies”, ran one advert. “Your army needs YOU. And your focus.” “Snowflakes. Your army needs YOU. And your compassion.” But still the armed forces have continued to shrink. Not only are young people declining to join up, they are finding few reasons to stay once they get there. The army is now just 74,000 strong compared with 100,000 in 2010.
The issue came to a head last week when General Sir Patrick Sanders, the chief of the general staff, warned that reserves were so thin that we may need to train up a “citizen army” to bolster them should war break out. Downing Street has since clarified that conscription is not on the cards. But the idea that young people might be rounded up and forced into combat and buzzcuts briefly created a great deal of excitement among retired members of the army and GB News commentators. “I’m a UK Army veteran – WW3 conscription is exactly what entitled Gen Z need,” ran one headline in the Daily Express. A Daily Mail column suggested compulsory national service might even be the solution to knife crime. Young people are “easily offended” and they “lack motivation”, Maj Gen Chip Chapman told GB News. That is why they do not want to join the army.
