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Home Service Force and what it means for you?

The Ministry of Defence want to establish a new Home Service which last existed in Britain in the Cold War and before that the Second World War. <i>(Image: Graphic: Derek McArthur)</i>
The Ministry of Defence want to establish a new Home Service which last existed in Britain in the Cold War and before that the Second World War. (Image: Graphic: Derek McArthur)
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This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter.


So will the new 'Dad's Army' mean Ministry of Defence officials will be knocking on your door and asking or indeed requiring you or your loved ones - sons, daughters, husbands and wives - to swap 'civvy street' for army fatigues?

Well no, or no for most people, anyway.

It's still early days with no timescale yet given for when the new force would be established but The Herald learnt of the government's plans to set it up as we worked on our latest series 'Scotland's Defence Future' where we investigated Scotland's and the wider UK's preparedness for conflict as well as the threats currently and potentially facing us notably from Russia.

According to reports yesterday, the former chief of MI5 Baroness Manningham-Buller believes that the UK is indeed already at war with President Vladmir Putin's Russia suggesting the Kremlin may be behind a spate of cyber attacks on businesses and public bodies.


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And it's even more alarming to think that Russia could stage an attack on the UK - with a remote part of rural Scotland first in the firing line, as RUSI senior research fellow Ed Arnold made clear last month.

Mr Arnold said as things currently stand Russia has not decided to go to war with Nato.

However, he added that should it do so RAF Lossiemouth would be a prime target ahead of London as the Moray military base is home to the UK's jets which track Russian submarines in the North Sea and North Atlantic.

Disabling them, he argued, would severely weaken Nato's ability to take out the subs.

It is in this context of growing fears over Russian aggression towards Nato that the MoD published its Strategic Defence Review this summer.

Britain had a Home Service Force from 1982 to 1992(Image: Home Service Force)

Buried away in its 144 pages, drawn up with the purpose to make Britain safer, is a section on improving wider societal resilience part of which discusses plans for a new Home Service Force.

The new unit would be similar to one which existed from 1982 to 1992 in Britain during the Cold War and which recruited ex-servicemen for rapid readiness in case of a major conflict.

Its main role was to guard military bases against potential Warsaw Pact special forces and saboteurs, thereby freeing up regular forces for frontline duties.

Composed primarily of ex-military personnel, the Home Service Force was seen as the UK's version of the World War II Home Guard or 'Dad's Army'.

Likewise the new 'Dad's Army' would assemble veterans still young and fit enough to serve and able to be retrained swiftly together with current members of the reserve forces .

The latest official figures show the reserve forces have currently 36,398 members in Scotland, most of whom - 22 897- are in the Reserve Land Forces Regular Reserve.

So the vast majority of Scots won't be asked to join the new 'Dad's Army' if and when it is established and will carry on with their civilian lives relatively normally.

Rather those who would be recruited would be people who have previously served with the armed forces (the numbers of which are not currently available) and those who are reserve members at the moment.

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But the subject of societal readiness for war does raise questions on how well prepared Scotland and the UK are should Russia or indeed another nation decide to launch an attack.

Speaking to The Herald Mr Arnold, while addressing the threat that Scotland could face from Moscow, compared the resilience in Scotland with that in other parts of northern Europe.

In his view Scotland and the UK are somewhat behind that of our neighbours in Finland, Sweden, Poland, Denmark and Estonia with leaflets sent to households and messages on the government websites of those countries on what their citizens can do to improve their own households' and their community's resilience.

Why such a step has not been taken in Britain is an issue which probably should concern us all.

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