Harry Clark, the winner of the second series of the BBC reality show The Traitors, has publicly endorsed the reintroduction of mandatory national service in the United Kingdom. Describing the idea as "great" during an appearance on Channel 5's Storm And Alexis show, Clark drew on his six years of service as a British Army engineer to argue that national service could provide direction and discipline for young people.
Clark's Military Background and Views
Clark, who famously betrayed his friend Mollie Pearce to win the £95,150 prize, served as an aeronautical engineer working on helicopters. He emphasised that the Army "gives purpose" and that national service does not necessarily mean sending young people to war. "I don't see any negative with bringing back the national service," Clark said. "There's a massive misconception with the Army – it doesn't mean we're going to take our kids, send them away to war, and they're going to shoot guns and be shot at and maybe die. That's not the case at all."
Benefits for Youth and Society
Clark highlighted the potential of national service to reduce crime and provide structure. "I think what we have today, especially in London, is young teenagers getting into crime because they feel like they have no purpose," he said. "The military can give them that purpose. On the wider aspects of things, national service can be so much broader. It doesn't mean just going to the military, it could be community service. What you're doing is installing discipline into these young kids, and they can take that on for their life forever."
Personal Reflections on Military Life
Reflecting on his own experience, Clark noted that many soldiers found a family in the military. "When I was in the military, the main thing I realised was that people were lost, or they had no-one else outside the military. The military then became their family," he said. He predicted that a year of service could transform young adults: "I can promise you, if these kids go to the military and just spend a year there, and they learn how to make their bed, firstly, they're going to be better off as young adults when they're coming out. But secondly, I can promise you, probably 50 to 60 per cent of them will want to stay on in the military and learn more because you can get multiple trades, and you can travel the world."
Context of the National Service Debate
Clark's comments come amid an ongoing debate in the UK about reintroducing national service, with proposals to mandate either military or civilian community service for 18-year-olds. The original national service in Britain was introduced in 1949, requiring physically fit men between 17 and 21 to serve 18 months in the armed forces, before being abolished in 1960. Currently, conscription is mandatory in several European countries, including Greece, Latvia, Sweden, Norway, and Croatia, which reintroduced national service earlier this year for the first time since 2008.
