I was in the Manchester Regiment and I sang with the Regiment band out in Berlin.The greatest thing was the comradeship, I still see pals I made during service. Then, the country needed an extra 250,000; today, it is 9,000.One man who revelled in the experience was the controversial Mancunian comic Bernard Manning, who was conscripted in 1948. In the years between 1947 and 1963, more than 2 million men took part in a somewhat pointless round of square-bashing, potato peeling and kit cleaning, with the promise of little else but a demob suit for serving Crown and country. Not all conscripts escaped active service, however. Sound familiar? It certainly does to those old enough to have taken part in National Service. IT'S being called the Fifth Option - the attempt to get jobless youngsters to join the armed forces as part of the Government's New Deal to steer people back to work.

Not content with offering the young unemployed training, work in the voluntary sector, a place on an environmental task force, or a job, ministers have succumbed to an impulse to corral the nation's youth into military duty. Jacques Villeneuve, in a Williams, beat Johnny Herbert, driving a Sauber, for sixth place.Spanish Grand Prix1 M Hakkinen (Fin) 10ptsMcLaren 1hr 33min 37.621sec2 D Coulthard (GB) 6ptsMcLaren +9.439sec3 M Schumacher (Ger) 4ptsFerrari +47.094sec4 A Wurz (Aut) 3ptsBenetton +1min 02.538sec5 R Barrichello (Br) 2ptsStewart +1 lap6 J Villeneuve (Can) 1ptWilliams +1 lap7 J Herbert (GB) Sauber +1 laps8 H-H Frentzen (Ger) Williams +2 laps9 J Trulli (It) Prost +2 laps10 J Alesi (Fr) Sauber +2 laps11 R Schumacher (Ger) Jordan +2 laps12 J Magnussen (Den) Stewart +2 laps13 T Takagi (Japan) Tyrrell +2 laps14 S Nakano (Japan) Minardi +2 laps15 E Tuero (Arg) Minardi +2 lapsNot classified (did not finish)16 O Panis (Fr) Prost 60 laps completed17 D Hill (GB) Jordan 46 laps18 E Irvine (GB) Ferrari 28 laps19 G Fisichella (It) Benetton 28 laps20 M Salo (Fin) Arrows 21 laps21 P Diniz (Br) Arrows 20 lapsFastest lap: Hakkinen 1:24.275 (ave 201.967kph/125.500mph. The Italian gave him a piece of his mind and then left it to his boss, Dave Richards, to accuse Ferrari of deliberately trying to slow him and shield Schumacher.Alexander Wurz was fourth for Benetton, and Rubens Barichello gave the embattled Stewart-Ford team an excellent fifth. He was running way back and must have known where I was when he came out of the pits He seems to get in a state when he sees me on the circuit. It's not good driving for someone of his experience."Irvine, too, felt the wrath of an opponent after he and Fisichella walked away from their beached cars. Relegated to fourth, he was back in third again after his second scheduled stop and this time his third place was secure. Hill had designs on a coveted first point of the season until he tangled with Frentzen on the 44th lap.

He managed to fish his Jordan out of the gravel, but had to park it soon after and retire.The former champion said: "Frentzen is a brick short of a full load He pushed me wide He's stupid There's no point in talking to him He doesn't understand common sense. He exceeded the pit lane speed limit and was called back for a stop and go penalty. It's taken us years to get back into this position."Mika has been dominant here and the car was right for him. But there will be other races where the roles are reversed and places where both will be together and I, like any racing fan, am looking forward to that."Schumacher forfeited a couple of places with a sloppy start but recovered them with a typically quick pit stop Too quick. "It's never as easy as it looks but my car was better than a lot of cars, probably the best on the track."There is no probably about it.