UK PM Rishi Sunak has come out of the election campaign gates with a splash, announcing that his government would bring back mandatory national service. Last in place in 1960, the scheme would give 18yos a choice between joining the military full-time for a year or volunteering one weekend every month for community organisations including the police and the National Health Service. This would kick off in September 2025 at a cost of nearly $5 billion a year, and Sunak says it would help foster “national spirit” and divert at-risk youth away from “lives of unemployment and crime”. The Labour Party called it “another desperate” unfunded commitment, as leader Keir Starmer announced 16 and 17yos could be given the vote if he wins, saying “if you can work, if you can pay tax, if you can serve in your armed forces, then you ought to be able to vote”.