I'm opposed to the policy, but if it does get implemented I think there are a lot of people who should be doing it before we get to 18 year olds. Mainly the generation of people this policy is designed to appeal to, who never had to do national service themselves but feel "kids these days" should have to. I'm sure those of that generation may be upset by that, but tough ****, I guess?
I think I speak for the majority of people under 45 when I ask if we can have our EU citizenship back as well please?
The posh folks will be all for it if until they find out it will included their little darlings Tarquin and Tarmara and not just the "delinquents" from the local council estate.
Desperate measures from this failed government. But Jay seems certain that labour will want to implement it at some point. Not a good outlook for the youngsters.
I personally think it's a very good outlook for our youngsters. It's not what national service used to be. Or, to be more precise, what has been proposed is not what national service used to be. It's genuine training in skills that will benefit individuals and society. I accept that what @Sestren highlighted is a possibility, but we're going to get a Labour government this next election and, the way the UK voting usually goes, probably for at least another term. That's 10 year to implement a policy that will benefit young people if it's applied correctly.
If that is your argument re Brexit then you should be including those 45 and above, because in all age groups above 45 there was a larger leave vote on the stats I saw.
I work very closely with the people who organise work experience for kids in year 10 and 12. There’s always people who don’t arrange anything, don’t turn up, and generally put no effort into the whole thing. Even amongst the ones who do try hard, it’s a lot of basically babysitting for the company, and whilst the kids might get something out of it, it’s wasted time and expense for the company providing the experience. Sending disinterested teenagers to volunteer for the NHS/fire stations etc. is not going to solve any staffing problems, it will just cause extra work and distractions for the staff already there.
It’s the majority of people under 65 now. It was only a majority of over 60’s and that voted in the referendum and then for Liar de Feffel Johnson who wanted to lose that and we are all older now The Tories are appealing to the nostalgic older generations who want to go back to an England that only existed in their imagination I assume they will be voting for reintroducing Ration books and The Home Guard as well
Im all for it but let's make it mandatory for everyone who voted for Brexit regardless of age. Let the 65 year old selfish ***** who voted to pull up the ladder behind them go out there and work in a hospital. After all it should be a piece of piss with all the extra nurses they'll have working there from the £350m a week they voted for right?
Two things. On the 12 months in the armed services option I'd think the highly professional and thinly stretched existing forces would be horrified at the prospect of having to waste precious resources baby sitting teenagers for 12 months. By the time they were starting to be of any sort of benefit at all their 12 months would be up. It's got to make more sense using the noney to just improve and expand the armed forces with people who actually want to be there as a long term career. The other option seems to be working in the community for one weekend a month. Sounds great but again you have the cost and distraction of current, valuable staff acting as nursemaids. At weekends when many would be expecting to be at home. Anyone who's ever had to train up teenagers knows full well that it takes a lot longer than 26 days to get any sort of value out of them. I get that there are good optics in this for some but when you get down to the nitty gritty it's daft and the money would be far better spent on improving services, NHS etc where they actually need it and not nannying 18 year olds for a uselessly short period of time.