ok, lets actually have a quick vote on the Compulsory National Service at 18 idea

[cannonballz]

I dont think any of the threads running have an actual poll. I can't believe anyone would go along with enforced labour of 18 year olds, particularly when dictated by someone so immensely wealthy, privileged and so utterly out of touch.

Lets see

It's a fucking ridiculous idea.

I think so too.

Agree, it's stupid.

Though my son has a mate who it took 18 months to get into the Navy so in not sure it's as easy to recruit as the gov are saying.

It's batshit.

Where are they going to house them for starters.

Ridiculous

Apparently this is not National Service as most of us would think of it and is not many hours with lots of options apart from military ones. I don't know those details but would find them out if I planned to start a thread on them.
Your post would be worth discussing with details of the proposals in it, otherwise it is just a dog-whistle for a bit of ill-informed froth

😂😂😂😂😂😂 they are toast.

I want to know where the money is coming from. They could also build prisons for criminals they won’t send away.

Hardly a dog whistle issue… agree it’s a ridiculous idea and probably ageist too and hopefully illegal. Do some volunteering yourself if you like the sound of it and want to invest in an idea of collective responsibility.

Smells like a red herring issue to me

Will maths lessons be included in this? 🧐

Stupid idea either way?

It is being discussed on multiple threads. What is not happening is it is not being polled on any other thread. The fact that you call having a poll about this "dog whistle" "ill-informed" and "froth" makes me wonder what exactly it is you don't like about the demonstration of the overwhelming opposition to this plan

Depends what they term National Service.

Shove all 18 year old into the forces for 2 years irrespective of anything - absolutely not.

Some kind of social service as part of citizenship training- maybe. Volunteering. Beach cleans. Tree planting. Litter picking around fast food joints. Befriending. Something that benefits their local area.

However......God knows how you'd make it hapoen, though. Those who will do it willingly likely already do.

Will there be consequences for not doing it? That's a horrific idea. It's a punishment for being young if so, and will be seen as such.

Utterly bonkers

My dad did national service and remembers it fondly. He is 86. His younger brothers did not, as the scheme had finished by the time they were the relevant age. They are 81 and 79!

It's not the 1950s anymore. Too many years and generations have gone by for families to accept this again, and why should they?

Poor bloody kids, what a world we have given them. An unstable world political situation, climate change, homes of their own a distant dream, ripped off for thousands in university tuition fees and accommodation charges just to get an average job. And now this!

It won't happen though. Rishi is really scraping the barrel now. He has led a privileged life himself and of course he was never required to do compulsory national service and neither did anyone else under about 84!

I think it's the fact it's so diametrically opposed. You either do a year in the army or spend 12 days a year volunteering?!

I do think some form of volunteering and/or work experience in which teens come into contact with the general public would be good though. Teenagers these days are just rude and insolent. They need some form of socialisation

I'm starting to think that wasn't rain we saw Rishi drenched in on Wednesday but rather the flop-sweat of desperation. People want something done about the cost of living, housing, the NHS and crime, and this is what he comes up with? I know people who actually did national service and they can be divided into those who saw it as a pointless delay in the business of actually getting on with their lives and those who had to endure the hell of being the puny, bookish kid trapped in a two year long PE lesson. As for all the charity and civic duty stuff, that just sounds like another Tory scheme to get essential work done by unpaid labour.

My dad enjoyed his National service, and seems to think it was a good thing. However it didn't suit everyone. At least two other young men killed themselves during their service as they couldn't hack it and didn't fit in. It was a completely different, much harsher world.

Terrible thing to put Forward

I was going to vote Tory

This policy means I will never vote Tory again

Apologies if I've missed where this has been explained, but what happens to the 18yos who are actually working or studying full-time? Even the community service, there are a lot of jobs and other worthwhile commitments that this schedule wouldn't be compatible with.

Surely Labour aren't wanting to take people out of jobs so that they can waste a year, then add them to the unemployment numbers afterwards?!

Maybe, if all young adults can be expected to give up a day/weekend a month for 'the community', all MPs should be forced to do the same? It's the easiest thing in the world to make demands of what younger people must do against their will, knowing full well that you are too old to have to do it yourself.

In fact, I think it would be an excellent idea for any MP who ever wants to be in with a chance of being the minister for any specific department to have to spend a whole year on the 'shop floor' in that area. Defence? Spend a year fighting on the front line. Education? A year as a TA. Health? A year as a hospital cleaner or shadowing a nurse. None of it compulsory at all, mind; only if you ever hope to possibly 'run' that part of the country.

It's not volunteering if it's compulsory. The state should not get to decide what adults do with their free time.

It is scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Anyone would think Sunak is trying to sink the tories for 20 years!

This is total top-class muppetry.

How about making politicians have to complete it before they can be elected? No? Strange.

Why not offer the Duke of Edinburgh award to all teens instead? Voluntary work done.

What is next it Sunak’s Ladybird Book of Throwing Elections? Bringing back workhouses? The cane for school discipline?