personally i struggle to see this carrying much weight.
if someone is willing to sign up and serve their country, i cannot see why they would be put off by the country coming calling should they be needed.
Joining up is not like any other employment leaving any other civilian employment does not come with expectations of retention - the military does and for good reason. I would struggle to believe someone would join up with the expectation of serving 7 years and then turning their back on the military and never referring to it ever again as if it were no different to a spell at Tescos or McDs
It varies. When I was going through phase 1 training with an infantry battalion, one of the instructors said words to the effect of, “job or no job, everyone in this room will be deployed to Bosnia or Northern Ireland within the next three years”. It didn’t put any of us off, because we were mostly students or people in dead-end jobs from deprived parts of Wales, with no reasons not to go.
Many years later I was at an information day for the RAF Reserves and many of the potential recruits – despite being highly motivated to do the work we do at weekends, etc. – were asking lots of questions about the 12-year engagements and call-out liability (and not believing our answers: but, to be fair, I wouldn’t have either).
Different people have different motivations – many think about joining the RAF Reserves later in life and don’t want it interfering with their highly-paid civilian jobs, family commitments, etc. They can commit to weekends, courses, exercises, etc. (which, in reality, is all we expect) but they don’t want to get whisked away from their jobs / families for 3/6/12 months (especially the ones who run family businesses).
1 Like
this is interesting.
the few reserves i do know, have all been keen to get out on a “tour” and know of one who managed it too with a 6 month deployment to Cyprus (they do work for the NHS though, who seem to have a very fluid attitude towards team members availability in comparison to my employers approach would be to disappearing for 6 months!)
1 Like
I’m also very fortunate to have a very supportive employer: but the self-employed, business partner / director, and consultant types can be ruined by a mobilization at the wrong time.
I think my discharge papers (from the last time I transitioned to an FTRS contract) said I’d mobilised 6 times in 9 years.
1 Like
I think I’m on the same number, but more spread out (other than the two in 2025).
I spent all of my 3 years in the regulars around Bedford, so was exposed to more danger than all of your tours combined!
8 Likes
Especially if south of the river! 
Testing airships until you crashed one…?
2 Likes
I take this bit back. Apparently we do know where they all are because of their pensions.
We genuinely had a rule not to cross the railway bridge after dark because it was considered too high risk.
3 Likes
That’s a stupid rule; there are multiple bridges over the railway in town there, and it’s generally not as bad as that.
1 Like
Ooooh, he’s off the fence for this one:
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer describes Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on US allies as “completely wrong”.
“Our position on Greenland is very clear – it is part of the Kingdom of Denmark and its future is a matter for the Greenlanders and the Danes,” he says in a statement.
"We have also made clear that Arctic Security matters for the whole of Nato and allies should all do more together to address the threat from Russia across different parts of the Arctic.
“Applying tariffs on allies for pursuing the collective security of Nato allies is completely wrong. We will of course be pursuing this directly with the US administration.”
4 Likes
This is insanity. Punishing NATO countries for supporting NATO.
This man is going to destroy the West as we know it. All in the name of making his mates and family richer. All whilst protecting him and them from Epstein related accusations.
4 Likes
Also, go over to r/conservative. The people on Reddit who bowed down to Trump as an Idol. Even they are against this, and starting to get completely get up. They’re very much in the FO phase.
The man is being harder on Denmark than Iran.
Statements don’t stand on Trumps toes, actions - and money - does.
Take all UK Government depts and ministers off X (only because banning it as a cess pit of fascism and child pornography looks complicated and lengthy..), cancel a couple of US defence contracts, recall all UK personnel on secondment to US forces, cancel state visits.
We need to completely un-couple ourselves from the US - the question is whether that will be able to be done in a controlled, managed way, or whether it’ll be in some big bang which is utterly chaotic.
1 Like
I heard an interesting theory today that Trump’s National Security Strategy would bring about the world described in 1984: with spheres of influence forming around the Americas (Oceana), Russia (Eurasia), and China (Eastasia).
I think we’re more likely to work with China compared to Russia.
In the book we were an airstrip for Oceana.
1 Like