Europe embraces national service - should the UK do the same?
This Is Why
Sky News
4.0 • 552 Ratings
🗓️ 25 November 2025
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Are you prepared to fight for your country?
That's the question Emmanuel Macron will be asking the young people of France this week when he announces a plan to introduce voluntary military service.
The threat posed by Russia and a US that has a questionable commitment to NATO means Mr Macron isn't the only European leader who has had to ponder such a move.
Should the UK follow France's lead and introduce some form of military service?
Niall is joined by former armed forces minister James Heappey.
Producer: Tom Gillespie
Editor: Mike Bovill
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Coming up, it's not quite conscription, but France is introducing voluntary military service |
| 0:06.3 | in the face of the growing threat from Russia. Could we soon follow suit? |
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| 1:19.8 | Hi everyone, welcome back to the Daily. Now, as I sit down to record this, we are seeing reports emerging from the United States that Ukraine has agreed to a modified peace plan. You can find |
| 1:24.7 | out more about that over on the website. But it certainly doesn't mean |
| 1:29.6 | that the Russian threat has magically disappeared for Ukraine or for Europe. Could a ceasefire |
| 1:35.3 | actually be more dangerous for us and our NATO allies? Well, that's why we're seeing nations |
| 1:40.7 | across the continent beefing up their militaries. The latest, France, will later this week announce a form of voluntary military service. So what's the plan |
| 1:49.7 | here? Well, France aims to train up young people so that they could be funneled into the forces |
| 1:54.3 | if necessary. On top of this, President Macron aims to increase the size of his reserve forces |
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