The reaction to National Service on here

[MaryMaryVeryContrary]

Many European countries (including Scandinavian countries) have NS. Are they ‘ridiculous’? Or are their much-coveted-by-Mumsnet-users communities better because of their sense of individual responsibility and contribution?

If 24 days (that’s how long it would be in total) of delivering prescriptions or volunteering as a hospital guide has you talking about human rights violations and Nazi Germany, then it’s very clear that you’re so pampered a bit of NS would do you good.

Everyone on here expects the world in terms of a ’village’, generous benefits, a caring society, but wants to do fuck all to contribute to it and think the notion of them having to do ANYTHING for anyone else is insane.

It’s nuts!

It's pointless

Most of these so called volunteer rules are currently filled. There are many older retired people happy to do them
My daughter recently did DofE and struggled to find volunteering opportunities.
But the fact is lots of 18yr olds already do community work.

24 days is not enough to get good at anything and does not compare to 12 months in the army, its a token gesture, that will make 18 Yr olds less employable and take them away from work and study.

100% this. Its just a dead cat this plan..

Well said

'Why should anyone ‘have’ to do anything'

Wow....deep

I don’t get all this talk about needing to be part of a ‘community.’ Why should we or my DD care what anyone else in the neighbourhood is doing or why is it her responsibility to help them? We’ve never asked or needed anything from anyone in our local area so we do we need to help others?
DD needs to be mobile so she can go where the opportunities are, not embedded in some fanciful ‘community’ that takes but doesn’t give her anything in return. She certainly won’t be doing NS.

Will the Torys who suggested it be

A Trying it first
B Alowing their children to do it.

Of course this is the selfish attitude that is prevalent now a days. You can't even look beyond your own self to see how society has helped your DD 🙄

How exactly?

This is a shit take because:

1. The countries in Europe who have any meaningful compulsory NS also have at least one of a decent welfare state and a close proximity to a country that invades a lot. We tick neither of those boxes.

1. Lots of us aren't naive enough to imagine this back of a fag packet shit would amount to any meaningful contribution. You thinking that is, well, nuts.

1. You don't get a more coherent society, a village as it were, by telling people they have to do it. You need to give them something to cohere round. This is not it.

1. If you think it'd be that wonderful, you'd agree to do it yourself. You haven't. If you think coerced labour should only be limited to adolescents, you can't think its that useful.

If 24 days (that’s how long it would be in total) of delivering prescriptions or volunteering as a hospital guide

So they would need to drive? To deliver prescriptions?

You think that an 18 year old can rock up and do either job? With no training, no orientation, no CRB check, and since you would hope those things where in place - the organisation has to fund all that for a commitment of 25 days?

It totally undermines the work volunteers do, the value organisations place on them and the work involved in supporting them.

My daughters worked from 16 and have plenty of experience on their CV's, they are still working to pay for university while studying - what would they get out of 25 days showing people round a hospital?

100% agree!

Your DD could become paralysed tomorrow and then very much need a community. And she will likely be very old one day. Do you want that to happen in a society where helping people in small ways is the norm and a kindness?

You sound like Scrooge himself.

Well of course if your children can’t drive they would be given something else to do, litter picking all sorts, I don’t know. Think a bit more laterally!

Yes, it indicates a failure to have thought about any of the practicalities of this. Granted, OP has plenty of company here. Which in itself is an interesting indicator of how little practical experience of volunteering some of the people berating others have!

A lot of children already do Duke of Edinburgh, which includes volunteering, so it’s basically the same, any everyone always goes on about how good that is for kids. People need to get a grip

the op has not given any answer to how much time they spend volunteering themselves, so I think it safe to assume thats a big fat zero then....

Was your DD home schooled?

In Scandinavia they treat their young people better.

Sorry but what is this country doing for young people? There's a housing crisis, NHS crisis, cost of living crisis. What have young people got to look forward to? Why would they be inclined to help a government and country that has fucked things up so massively for their futures?

Exactly.

I manage a team of volunteers and it's hard enough sometimes with people who actively want to be there. It would be a bloody nightmare to have people forced to be there.

I would say no to forced 'volunteers' in my organisation. I want people there who actually care about our beneficiaries.

I think they'd really struggle to find enough placements. Doubly so for any that are actually helpful and not just pretend to tick a box.

An 18 year old I know works 6 days a week as a carer. I think they are doing their bit already.

This is so sad at such a young age though, really that shouldn't be falling on them and this could be an opportunity to get out in the world and see and meet new people. I don't doubt they do an excellent job but this is wrong really, no 18 year old should be a carer when their peers are just starting to build their careers and explore the world.

there’s a massive hours difference between every weekend and a few hours a week DofE requires.
you also get to choose and the placement chooses you.

do the army even want these 18 year olds??!

what about those that work and or work weekends?

Completely. There’s very very little hope for our youngsters.

'All sorts' is doing a lot of work in that sentence.

You've not explained what are these volunteer roles that require so little training they can achieve something useful in one weekend a month, that people won't simply piss about if they don't want to do (so not little picking then) that don't allow the really pissed off ones access to things or people they could cause harm to and that aren't going to require so much supervision that it cancels out any benefits to the organisations.

Never mind thinking laterally, you don't appear to be thinking at all.

The thing that really annoys me about this idea is that it seems to be framed as a punishment for young people. Either do this or do that. Serving in the military or volunteering should be done because the person is willing to do it otherwise it will not work. As a regular volunteer, I want to be around others who believe in the cause not there because they are being forced into it. Of course it's yet another Conservative plan that will never see the light of day. What are they going to do if people refuse? Send them to prison? I think they might be full up as it is.