Mark Andrews: Students in the battlefield, the Turner Prize, and why things are looking Shaky for the PM

David Davis, the former cabinet minister and ex SAS reservist, reckons the Government ought to solve the problem of our threadbare army  by recruiting students, who can do their training during the long summer holidays.

I fear Mr Davis may be a little out of touch with the modern student lifestyle. Training would begin at midday,  obvs, to give them chance to watch Homes under the Hammer first. And they would probably want to do it online, so there would be no need to get out of bed. There would need to be a safe space flor them to retreat to every time the Sgt Major questioned their parenthood,  they would require a gluten-free diet in the Naafi, and expect the enemy to issue a trigger warning before mounting an attack.  

As an idea for boosting army numbers, it is a non-starter. As the basis of a sitcom though.... 

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