To be baffled at Rishis National Service Plan

That won’t stop legislation being passed that affects 14/15 year olds further down the line!

I haven’t seen a good explanation yet as to why everyone who hasn’t yet done it can’t do if it’s such a great thing.

Not if Labour get in, and give a vote to 16 and 17 year olds. As least they can try and balance out the old gimmers trying to pull the ladder away.

As is, and will always be the case with many issues.

I’m not.baffled by it however, the people directly impacted don’t vote for the Tories.

The people directly impacted can’t vote at all.

It should be extended to all age groups. At the moment it seems to be targeting an age group that can't vote. It would be interesting to see if making NS compulsory for everyone affects the popularity of the measure.

I’m not.baffled by it however, the people directly impacted don’t vote for the Tories. I don’t like what I perceive as ageism on Mumsnet but I do think in this case broadly the pattern of popularity for this is likely to increase with age. The voting pattern for the Tories has such a marked age split, I think they are exploiting the age divide in the UK and further damaging social cohesion while claiming to be doing the opposite.

@CovertPiggery and I have explained my thoughts on that earlier on.

I didn't think you were in charge of it 😁

You thought it was a great idea and should be rolled out further, so I assumed you'd have thought that through and even a little about how it would work. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Well, I’m super pleased with this proposal as it has actually made my lifelong Tory-voting parents pissed off! My dad just missed National Service and was always very thankful-he doesn’t want his 15 year old GC having to end up doing any sorted of forced bullshit vanity project.

Every cloud and all that.

@CovertPiggery I am not entirely sure why you are asking me, as I have nothing to do with the delivery of the scheme!

Exactly, but it would get them the voters they're trying to appeal to I think.

I'm glad they came up with an even more ridiculous idea so less people are tricked into voting for them.

@CovertPiggery wasn't job seekers "volunteering" that Work Fare scheme or whatever it was called?
The problem with that was it had people doing unpaid work ("volunteering") in something that should have been a paid job - like supermarket shelf filling etc.
It was a con.

You cannot, by definition, be forced to volunteer.

With no care about the fact that forced volunteering would be a nightmare for volunteer managers, volunteers and companies, charities etc?

I would not take mandatory volunteers in my organisation. I want people who actually care about our beneficiaries and want to help.

I know an awful lot of people in my role that feel the same. You'd struggle to get anywhere near enough placements.

Or would you make mandatory for organisations to take the volunteers too?

Yep. Not even the Tories actually think that what young adults need in a cost of living crisis is a requirement to do volunteering.

They definitely would have won more votes if they'd said they'd make job seekers volunteer.

Not my vote FWIW, but I can see more getting behind that.

@CovertPiggery it should be expanded out.

I think I just assumed it was younger teens because people were mentioning school.

It would kind of make sense if it was built into school somehow.

It's bizarre that they're planning to make 18 year olds do it. Most 18 year olds I know are studying full time or working.

Why should they be forced to volunteer and not someone 20/30/40 etc.

Really, really odd.

@Needmorelego again, I agree, but I think that’s worthy of a thread of it’s own.

@WinterMorn yes this is the thing - the proposal is for 18 year olds not "children".
However at 18 most people are either -

• at university/college while working part time.
• working full time
• on an apprenticeship scheme
• raising a child
• unemployed (looking for work)
• not working due to disability or illness
• not working and not looking for work.

If they want to get more teenagers into volunteering, they should develop a scheme for that purpose (or revive the old one) instead of mandatory unpaid labour.

I had a full time job at 18 and spent the weekends doing driving lessons. I had no free time for volunteering.

I agree, but given the frequent discussions on here about the expectation and pressure on teachers, that’s not always happening!

Several problems with it! Firstly, many teenagers already volunteer. The detail behind this plan is horrible. You MUST do it at 18, and university / working / being abroad is no excuse. How the hell does that work then?
These kids that "desperately need it" etc etc. Who is looking after these young adults while they "volunteer" - are they suddenly going to see the error of their ways and start behaving? Or is it the duty of some poor charity / hospital to deal with them?
Other countries that make people do it - I keep seeing Denmark cited. Are we going to get the education system and services that they have? I suspect not.

The stupid thing is, a well thought out plan could be such a positive thing. Encourage rather than compel, perhaps have some sort of incentive too (some sort of discount on tuition fees?) rather than this just clearly being designed to appeal to Reform voters.

So he's not volunteering, you're volunteering him. Fair enough, that's your shout.
The government proposal however, despite using the same word, is not about volunteering at all - the only options are upaid work.