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

Up there with the worst policies I’ve ever seen from a major party.

I wasn’t going to be voting Tory anyway but, if a party I supported announced it, it’d be enough to lose my vote.

If the volunteering is also at weekends it severely restricts the amount of opportunities available anyway.

I can’t even find a school placement for ND teenager. So she probably won’t do one.

DH is very pro National service, he is one of those people who would have loved doing it. He refuses to see the practicalities and would have all teenagers living in tin huts in the countryside, bathing in rivers.

A lot of right wingers love subjecting teenagers to “character building” suffering of that sort. Reminiscent of those desert boot camps where they abuse troubled kids in the US. It’s really sick.

He’s not right wing but spent his teenage years with the boys brigade being all outdoorsy and shit. His parents didn’t do any activities or days out so was a big thing for him.
He wasn’t thrown into it at 18 which is a big difference.

Not a good idea to bathe in rivers now because of what the water companies dump in them, Something else they want people to forget about by flinging this dead cat into the arena

I think this is a good point I hadn’t thought about, of course it makes sense the Tories would outsource to their mates to make money from.

Perhaps it might nip it in the bud so we don't get a future generation of people who are rude.

It should of been introduced years ago we might have a bit more respect for the younger generation and some discipline the country has gone to soft

The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they knew everything, and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them.

Said by Plato some 2000 years ago. It was bollocks then, it's bollocks now.

8 percent strongly for - presumably this is the intended percentage of voters the Conservatives want/will have by the end of the election.

I think it should be applied across the board and oldies(if not everyone) should be out there too picking up litter, running walking groups ,making cups of tea for meet up groups - that would help the loneliness in old age issue.

Ridiculous

I think the aim was to keep Labour off the front page

There shall be another radical proposal next week

in that way it been quite successful …. Labour are best to say little other than it’s a gimmick which so far they have

It should of been introduced years ago we might have a bit more respect for the younger generation and some discipline the country has gone to soft

If you really believe that then why do you think it’s happened? Do you think it’s because 18yos don’t have their first year of employment or HE fucked up by monthly weekend long litter picks? Their ability to work in retail, hospitality, care and other sectors absolutely bollocksed by giving them a monthly legal obligation to fulfil during the busiest working days in those sectors. Their sports training opportunities messed up - they can’t go to that match or that athletics meet or that swim gala or that yoga class because Rishi says. Their travel opportunities thwarted - 3 months travelling in Indonesia after A- levels - sure, so long as you pitch up to help the fire brigade out in the middle of it. Do you think that by making 18yos really unattractive to employers it will stop them being soft? Or perhaps the billions this will cost could go to younger children - investment in outward bound centres for school residentials, investment in youth groups and grass roots sports, investment in public transport so kids can actually get to places to do things, investment in urban design and family homes in cites and towns so we reverse the situation of run down towns full of dodgy HMOs and families living in the boring, but safe, sprawl with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Investment in libraries and after school clubs. Investment in public sector educators who could run actually useful, supervised, work experience days for y10-13 kids across the public sector. Maybe pay some of the big companies to run similar schemes (large law, finance, engineering and manufacturing companies). Make volunteering compulsory for y12-13 - in the community - during “frees” in the school day so it doesn’t interfere with their actual job opportunities, if you must, but taking working age adults ability to work is not going to toughen anyone up even a tiny bit.

I still can't get over the idea that anyone can say the phrase 'compulsory volunteering' and keep a straight face. I mean, English isn't my first language but even I know that this is an impossibility.

Quite.
But it sounds better than unpaid work doesn't it?
I think there's another word for compulsory unpaid work in fact...

Make volunteering compulsory for y12-13 - in the community - during “frees” in the school day so it doesn’t interfere with their actual job opportunities

Was compulsory when I was in 6th form, at least in my school. Every Tuesday afternoon you had to volunteer somewhere (or volunteer on an evening or weekend to replace the Tuesday afternoon). Don't they still do that?

@Natsku my DCs' 6th form didn't (thank goodness). Because volunteering should be voluntary. It's in the name.

My DC did actually volunteer - they tutored Yr8 and 9 at the lower school and really enjoyed it. But they chose to do it.

Rishi’s last ditch attempt to appeal to the older-right-leaning crowd 🙄

Great idea Tories… 14 years of services decimated for children/young people and now you want to sign them up for National Service?!

Just goes to show how little Tories care about children and the younger generations. Ugh.

Ha! Good point

Well it wasn't called volunteering, it was called 'enrichment' but it was basically 'do something worthwhile with your time'. I volunteered in a primary school one year and a youth club the other. Sometimes teenagers (and children, and adults) need to pushed to do something before they discover the benefits.

It was compulsory in my 6th form too. Put me off a job working with children and having my own so I definitely got something out of it.

And sometimes they don't. This entire policy, and the idea that teenagers need to be pushed into doing things they don't want outside of the usual obligations of school, is part of a disgusting culture of demonising the young. It's why the UK has so many academy schools with ridiculous draconian uniform and behaviour policies. As someone not born in the UK, it confuses me because the majority of young people I've been around while my DC were growing up were perfectly normal, decent human beings. And I don't live in leafy wealthy suburbia either.

In every age group there are a majority of decent people and a small subset of shitheads. The old are not exempt and the young are not worse than the old.

I did say children and adults too, sometimes we all need to be pushed a little out of our comfort zones and do something different, and especially something helpful. Even non-shitheads.
My DD's school forces the children to clean the school and the surrounding area at the end of every term, sometimes litter picking even further afield.

And frankly everyone needs to learn that we are all part of society, and being part of society doesn't just mean having rights, it also means having responsibilities and obligations.

And frankly everyone needs to learn that we are all part of society, and being part of society doesn't just mean having rights, it also means having responsibilities and obligations.

At school, we meet our obligations by attending, by doing the work we are set, by abiding by the school's rules of conduct. If we do not, there are sanctions. Forced volunteering is not required.

In adult society, we meet our obligations by working, by paying taxes, by abiding by the law and by observing societal rules of courtesy and manners. If we do not, there are sanctions. Forced volunteering is quite simply not required.

Some of us volunteer because we want to (I do, in case you thought otherwise) and because we can, others have different priorities in their lives. And that's fine.