I HOPE fellow readers won’t think me a fascist when I say the D-Day anniversary, and the chance to be reminded of the heroic acts by so many young men and women (some of them only children) made me contemplate the youth of today and come to this conclusion: bring back National Service.

We have so many problems with crime, unemployment, bad manners and so forth that I can’t help but think that a little bit of discipline would do our young people good.

It would teach them skills, respect, self-motivation and keep them occupied rather than loafing about in front of Jeremy Kyle or down the park with a can of lager and a nasty-looking pitbull.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want a war-mongering society or one in which we have no human rights (just think where we would be without those heroes of D-Day), nor do I have time for the UKIP party, and I wouldn’t like to see Scotland cut adrift either come their referendum on independence.

But I see nothing wrong with a bit of patriotism, a sense of duty and pride in our once great nation.

It couldn’t make things any worse, could it?

CE Billings, Newport Street, Swindon