Those calling for the return of military national service are talking rubbish. Why should the military pay the price for the failure of parents, teachers, the police, the courts and politicians who got the country into this mess?

These hasty calls are made by two groups. First, ex-NS men who, remembering how they moaned, griped, whined and complained their two years away, really should know better. The other group, often women, have never been within miles of a barracks, assault course or parade ground.

Shut it, please.

National Service was created to prop up those British ex-pats who had turned stolen land into profitable tea, coffee, rubber and sugar plantations.

Easy enough when you have a big supply of near-slave labour, 'native boys'.

The British Establishment, looking after its colonial branch while ignoring its own poor and poorly educated, not by chance of course, needed these to do its dirty work at home and abroad. Nothing's changed eh, Tony?

The reintroduction of National Service would reduce the high standards of our modern all-regular armed forces.

The all-regular army I left in 1970 was vastly superior to the NS-dominated rabble I first entered in 1951. When I joined my regiment in Germany we didn't even have sheets on our beds. It was six months before we got our first and another six before the second. No wonder morale was at rock bottom.

We came into contact with other Nato troops while on training and they were all better dressed, fed, accommodated and paid than us. But clearly every bit as bored and disinterested.

Thankfully the Soviets were pretty much the same.

While stationed in Berlin we had, when going out on training, to pass through a checkpoint. Here we'd be counted out by a surly-looking officer and a couple of young squaddies, I winked at one of them once. He checked to see his OC wasn't looking and winked back while pretending to yawn. He was more our kind than our platoon officer.

We also saw them while they were doing the Spandau Prison guard. All forces in Berlin took turns to guard Hess, Speer and Von Shirac. From a window in one barrack block we'd watch them and relate to them. They'd pace around the turret, flash the searchlight to catch a rabbit in the glare and then throw a small stone to get it running. The officers of course, theirs and ours, never manned a post.

Bring back National Service? No, bring in for the very first time in our long history equality, a fair chance for all. Spend money not on illegal wars but on sporting facilities where young people can let out their natural energy in a positive way. If not they'll let it out in a negative way and we'll all suffer. Though not as badly as the ones whose countries we illegally invade.

The official title of our armed forces is British Defence Forces'. Just who are we defending in Iraq and Afghanistan? Gibraltar, Northern Ireland (it's not in Britain), Cyprus, Sierra Leone and Germany, bearing in mind we signed the peace treaty years ago and the Soviet communists no longer exist.

British people's money should be spend in Britain and on British people.

Bring back National Service? Why?