Why Conscription up to 65 Won't Work.

This weekend I turned 64. Rather than the usual trip up North to visit parents, as they have now shuffled off to join the Choir Invisible I decide to celebrate doing something different.

I went camping with the extended family. Kids Grandkids and the single great-grandkid. All in about 6 tents. 

But the weekend just hit home how stupid the recall of ex-military up to the age of 65 is. 

I was crippled. Just by sheer dampness. I mean, modern tents go up in minutes. A 4-berth inflatable tent like ours is up in 10 minutes and completely guyed out in 20.

Setting up inside takes a little longer, but prioritising the kitchen means you can be having a cuppa in half an hour. 

The bed inflates itself from the power pack, as do the chairs. 

Camping is not as hard as I remember it was back when I was a kid. 

But the weather beat me. My joints were racked by the damp. Not the cold. It was far from cold. But it was relentlessly damp.

If I was a 64 year old reservist deployed to some moist part of Europe, there's no way I could defend myself or my colleagues effectively. It would take me a couple of minutes to get up, let along dash to some muster point, or some fire pit ready to repel some foreign army. 

By the time my joints had complied with some semblance of flexibility without pain, we'd be overrun.

An that's the reason why Recall up to the age of 65 won't work, not for the military. There's a reason that you can pension out at an early-ish age. It's because your body can't do the things it did when you were in your twenties. 

I suppose you could be recalled and used here in the UK to fill logistics roles, or maybe some home defence type of role. 

But home defence? Using what exactly? 

It's just pie in teh sky. I don't know what the MOD were thinking, or smoking. But they should lay off it and come back to some for of realism.

TikTok: Why Do All the Crazes End Up Killing People?

Well, the question my Mum used to ask me has been answered: yes, there are a bunch of kids that will jump off a cliff if someone else told them to do it.

We had the Blackout craze, where kids choked themselves to unconsciousness. Kids were dying because they effectively hanged themselves.

One of the latest is the Benadryl challenge. A girl has already died after a fatal overdose of Benadryl.

Now the latest challenge is to drive up motorways or dual carriageways the wrong way. Basically a game of chicken. 

The thing that gets me is these are young adults. To get your licence in the UK you have to be at least 17. Yet you're still doing stupid TikTok fads at that age? <rolls eyes>

It was bad enough when it was the stupid kids offing themselves, but now we have a craze that will potentially kill other people. 

At that point, I think things have gone too far. 

Sadly I can't condone censoring TikTok completely, because it's mostly innocuous. But I do condone parents having the "would you jump off a cliff?" talk to their teenage kids. 

Because as it stands, there are a huge number of kids that would jump off a cliff if dared to. Or even just for likes on social media.

Not that you'd be able to enjoy your minute of social media fame if you are dead.

Pamphlet For Immigrants Released Asking They to Be Less Rapey, Amongst Other Things.

The Home Office has released a pamphlet designed to be handed to every immigrant that lands in the UK, giving them some idea of how we expect them to act once they are receiving our hospitality.

It includes pointers like:

Don't Harrass people.

Be less Rapey.

Be Less Aggressive.

Women are Equals.

You get the idea. Basically telling them they're no longer in Kansas... sorry the third world shithole they came from, and that we have standards they need to adhere to. Let's hope this eradicates the "Sorry, my client didn't know raping a woman was illegal your Honour" defence in rape cases.

<Shakes Head>