Experts warn Britons are dangerously unprepared for WW3 conscription | UK | News
Britain is dangerously unprepared for a third world war and the Government must urgently consider conscription and whole-of-society mobilization before it is too late, experts warn.
With Putin crossing over Ukraine, Iran at war with the US and China threatening Taiwan, the question of whether British civilians are ready for what might come next has moved from theoretical to urgent. Last year’s Strategic Defense Review called for a national conversation on readiness; But those closest to the issue say the country is dangerously far from it.
Lord Toby Harris, chairman of the National Preparedness Commission, is frank about the gap between ambition and reality.
“A national conversation means every citizen is included in it, and we are far, far away from that,” he reportedly said.
“More needs to happen in schools, more needs to happen in business. If you talk to most business leaders, they don’t see this as their responsibility. They see it as something the government should do, ‘so what can we contribute?’ not.”
Drawing on the experiences of Britain’s European neighbours, a new commission report finds Britain is being left behind by allies who have already made the difficult decisions on civil preparedness that Westminster has so far avoided.
Swedish model
Sweden’s approach was methodical, Forces News reported. Rather than relying on volunteers or waiting for a crisis, the government pored over national registries of licensed electricians, selected individuals, and began training them as emergency repair crews for the electrical grid, one of the first targets of any modern conflict.
“This is something that is indispensable in war because the Russians will target the electrical infrastructure, as they have already done in Ukraine,” the report’s author, Elisabeth Braw, said, according to the report. “If war comes, we will trust such people, not just people who carry guns.”
Estonian model
Small, vulnerable and sharing a border with Russia, Estonia has built a defense model that the rest of Europe is now working on. Its system is based on conscription and a quickly mobilized reserve force. Braw reportedly believes the UK could adopt elements of this approach without reintroducing compulsory service.
“Estonia has an excellent system for quick exercise,” he apparently said. “So if you can show that you can call up your reserves on 48 hours’ notice, which is something the Estonians can do, and it’s something that keeps the reserves updated and engaged, but by conducting these exercises Estonia also signals to Russia that all the reserves… can get to where they need to be very quickly. So it would be painful for Russia to try anything – to try any military action – against Estonia.”
trust deficit
Engaging the public in a real conversation about national security requires the government to be more transparent about the threats facing the UK; Experts say this is long overdue.
Lord Toby warned that waiting any longer carried real risks in a media environment rife with hostile disinformation.
“Given that there are active attempts to undermine people’s trust in public authorities in this country, think about all the misinformation and disinformation that is currently being weaponized through social media,” he said. “You have to start building that trust so that people feel that, yes, they can trust themselves and trust that the authorities will support them.”
Former Sergeant Major Dave Butler, who served in the British Army for 21 years between 1967 and 1998, told Forces News he was less optimistic about whether that window still existed.
“Society today is much more confused about what is real and what is not,” he told BFBS Forces News. “I think the public has completely lost confidence in the government.
“Right now, even if the Government tries to tell us that we’re two days away from World War Three, some sections of the public won’t believe it. They’ll think it’s fake news and so they’ll react accordingly. And I think that’s going to be one of the challenges over the next three to five years.”
Reasons for optimism
Braw sees reasons for hope. The Covid crisis has shown that the British people will respond when the risks become clear, and the collective resistance shown during the Blitz remains the strongest historical example of what the country can achieve when its back is against the wall.
A few events in recent history have made this question even more pressing. Whether the government will find the courage to have an honest conversation with the public about what the coming years may entail, and whether the public will respond to that call, may be the defining question of our age.
