If Britain ever brings back military conscription will Human Rights Law require equal sacrifice as well as equal protection?
If you’ve ever wondered how a coalition cabinet led by Michael Gove and Nicola Sturgeon might cope in a crisis, then Sky’s recent ‘constructed documentary’ The Wargame offers answers. Over four nights in September, a cast of cross-party political elders played out a simulated scenario of Russian aggression against the UK. The outcomes were as terrifying as you may imagine.
An accidental sinking of a Russian vessel triggered tit-for-tat military actions while America and NATO stayed firmly on the sidelines. Events escalated rapidly to a UK strike deep inside Russian territory, ending on a cliffhanger: a hypersonic missile with an unknown payload minutes from hitting England. Participants were left debating the legalities of deploying their nuclear arsenal as the screen faded to black.
This all made for compelling television, albeit highly detached from reality given that over four years of fighting Moscow has displayed zero appetite to go nuclear against an opponent unable to respond in kind. Instead it has pursued attritional “meat grinder” tactics, accepting high losses on their side in return for exhausting Ukrainian ammunition, manpower and positions.
Such tactics have relevance to an apparently personal grievance raised by former Labour front bencher Jim Murphy during a post Wargame studio discussion. Murphy claimed he’d been turned down for an Army reservist role because of his age and called for “a bit more ‘flexibility” in the system so that older patriots like him can do their bit.
His comments were immediately preceded by a retired General’s sombre calculation that, based on current numbers, Russian operations in Ukraine had already “consumed” the equivalent of 15 British armies. The message was clear: In wartime Britain would need reserves.
Incidentally, Murphy runs a firm called Arden Strategies that lobbies the government on behalf of manufacturers of arms and the retired General is chair of the commercial consultancy Universal Defence & Security Solutions.
But I digress.
When rights meet obligations
The War Room presented military escalation as a matter of national strategy. But war also eventually becomes a matter of manpower. Weapons need people to operate them, units need replacing, and casualties need replenishing.
“All military roles in Britain have been open to women since 2018, and yet significantly the armed forces retain specific exemptions within the Equality Act 2010.”
The Ukraine conflict provides a contemporary indicator of the implications for UK citizens if the proverbial balloon ever does go up. Since February 2024 Ukrainians have experienced significant erosion of rights enshrined in the The European Convention on Human Rights, including Freedom of movement.
These restrictions have especially impacted citizens from a particular demographic, which as Nichola Sturgeon's successor ably demonstrated is evidence of the Gender Empathy Gap. In 2023 whilst posing for a photo opportunity with Ukrainian refugees, Humza Yousaf naively asked them ‘where are all the men? The women responded with nervous laughter before explaining that the men “stay in Ukraine”
The martial-law ban on men leaving the country resolved the cruel mathematics of sustained attritional warfare and by now the overwhelming majority of casualties will have been conscripts with little if any combat experience.
“Men with valid deferrals are frequently caught up in these sweeps, including some with physical, intellectual and psycho-social disabilities.”
Meanwhile, even ‘deferred men’ can experience intense pressure to fight. The most overt pressure comes from what Ukrainians call "busification": men detained in public spaces and driven away in unmarked vans. Men with valid deferrals are frequently caught up in these sweeps, including some with physical, intellectual and psycho-social disabilities. Chillingly, many men have reported that their legal status on the Reserve+ app suddenly disappears or fails to update in time, leaving them exposed during random identity checks.
Whatever one's view of Ukraine's military policy, the underlying lesson is difficult to ignore. In an existential war, rights considered universal can become conditional very quickly indeed.
The psychology of the "sisterhood"
Another significant moment in the war room studio discussion came when host Cathy Newman observed that the cohort of elder career politicians displayed noticeably scant difference of opinion along ideological or party political lines. This prompted participants to reveal that there definitely had been a gender divide with conversations between ‘the sisterhood’ often leaving the two male Cabinet members (and Penny Mordant) languishing in what was jokingly referred to as ‘testosterone corner’.
Such candour invites an interesting question: How willing would this ‘sisterhood’ be to compel its own members into military service? After all, a prominent American sister once famously pushed back on this possibility when campaigning for votes in the 2016 Presidential election campaign.
One clue points to peacetime priorities and the comparative regard politicians can display towards men and women in public policy. For example,during Nichola Sturgeon's time as First Minister for Scotland, she committed to introducing a sex exclusive Misogyny Bill on the basis of her belief that she governed over a deeply patriarchal society that systematically subordinates women through the rigid enforcement of traditional gender roles. If enacted it will create, amongst other things, an offence of stirring up hatred against women and girls, presumably by anyone languishing in ‘testosterone corner’.
Meanwhile in Northern Ireland, the female-led Executive has elevated ending violence against women and girls to a key pillar of their programme for government. Supporters of this policy point to troublingly high levels of domestic homicide but then again 40% of domestic homicide victims in Northern Ireland are male, as are 65% of all victims of violent crimes, rising to 98% in the case of the region’s notorious punishment beatings, the most gendered form of violence encountered by the Police Service for Northern Ireland.
The point is not that concern for female victims is unwarranted. It is that public policy can become accustomed to recognising sex-specific vulnerability in one direction while being less able to recognise it in the other. This matters whether the conversation concerns protection or civic duty.
Coercive Control and Double Standards
Britain has much more deeply entrenched civil liberties than pre-war Ukraine, making anything as extreme as "busification" unlikely, one would hope. Then again, more subtle methods of coercion may be applied.
“The existing combat-effectiveness exception could become relevant if discussions ever turn to conscription and the possibility that some citizens may be considered more expendable than others.”
During the First World War, the White Feather Campaign became a powerful method of social coercion. Invented by a retired British Admiral and embraced by the suffragette movement, men not in uniform were publicly shamed by revered members of ‘the sisterhood’ for supposedly failing in their patriotic duty.
Social media provides an extraordinarily powerful means of shaming people perceived to be avoiding their obligations, something that has become normalised in parts of Ukrainian society. As has the sometimes hypocritical enforcement of traditional gender roles. Take Ukrainian MP Oleksandra Ustinova for example, who has called for stronger criminal penalties for men avoiding service. When not banging the drum in her homeland she frequently travels to be with her husband who is comfortably sitting out the conflict in Texas.
The NATO meat grinder
The most likely circumstances in which Britain might consider compulsory service would be a major expansion of the war in Ukraine and direct NATO involvement in sustained fighting against Russia on European soil.
If willing volunteers like Jim are consumed into the meat-grinder then governments would face an uncomfortable choice: accept defeat or compel citizens to serve. If the latter, they may quickly discover that public opinion is much less married to equality if equality requires everybody to accept the same risks.
All military roles in Britain have been open to women since 2018, and yet significantly the armed forces retain specific exemptions within the Equality Act 2010. The existing combat-effectiveness exception could become relevant if discussions ever turn to conscription and the possibility that some citizens may be considered more expendable than others.
To paraphrase the late great George Carlin: rights aren’t rights if they can be taken away. At best they are a set of temporary privileges that can fail to upload in this digital age just when you need them the most. Some European men have already found that they suddenly had no right of free movement and no right to due process of any kind. The only right they had was...right this way..into a bus heading straight to the front line.
You can see the video on this topic by The Glass Blindspot here.
Disclaimer: This article is for information purposes only and is not a substitute for therapy, legal advice, or other professional opinion. Never disregard such advice because of this article or anything else you have read from the Centre for Male Psychology. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of, or are endorsed by, The Centre for Male Psychology, and we cannot be held responsible for these views. Read our full disclaimer here.
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people are more aware of the fact men can be victims of this type of violence, but this often isn’t translated into policy, practice or indeed provision of resources