Sign them up
Sir: I have seldom read such a well articulated and disturbing article as Andrew Neil's 'Memo to Gordon' (30 June). While it does not offer a solution, 'a problem identified is a problem half solved'.
Grave problems demand grave solutions. While I know that what I suggest will not appeal to many in the Services, I can see no real remedy for such a fundamental social problem other than the reintroduction of National Service. The feral sickness Neil describes is founded in a rootlessness derived from no self-discipline, no respect for authority, no direction and no sense of belonging or comradeship — the very characteristics which the National Service experience addresses.
With the Services facing overstretch, it would be necessary to conclude our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan in order to be able to tackle the sickness at home. Unlike the last period of National Service, women would have to be involved in the programme It should be founded on strict military discipline and team development, with service lasting some 18 months, involving a readiness to deploy to civil disaster areas, famine relief and UN peace-keeping-type operations.
Today's young men and women would stand to gain a much needed sense of worth, and long-term benefits for themselves and subsequent employers. Then Britain would be on the road to being Great again.
Brig IP Maxwell, Retd Gt Barton, Suffolk
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