Published on 12, July, 2020
I see this old chestnut has come to the fore again. I can see problems with it.
Does the military want all these people for a year or so and what will they do with them?
If people are made to volunteer for things like life boats, special constables and library assistants, will it mean that the training for such things will outlast the service time?
Will real jobs be at risk because people are volunteering?
If theres no sanctions how will they make people do it?
Will it mean that those currently on benefits will be sanctioned for not "doing their bit"?
Will this idea have mission creep? If not enough people volunteer, will some kind of sanction be imposed?
It all sounds desperate to me, like a political party flailing about to find vote winning policies that are ill thought out.
It won't come in until 2029 anyway, just in time for another election, hmmm?
ME, I'd like to do 2 days in service to my nation, for a pro-rata univeral basic income based on what a current 60 year old government service worker doing similar work gets on average.
I could live on that, and would have a sense of being involved in a positive way.
We have to be careful with the concept of "National service". The military concept of "basic training", involves heavy psychological manipulation and conditiioning, that makes good order followers but that will not work for all types and do we really want a nation of order followers?
It only takes the wrong person to give the wrong order and teh devoted "rder followers" are all suddenly doing bad or stupid things...
Heck, just a couple of years ago the "order followers" wanted people like me herded off to special camps...