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?
the military he pledged only 30k places for in this idea....we have 70k troops.... cut from 100k.... by making this national service with 30k places all he does is get the troop count back up to 100k where the tories cut it from in the first place... so yeah, its pointless.... just get us the real regular troop count back up to 100k instead... if national service doesnt give us a force in the millions its not worth doing.
Most NHS facilities I've been in recenlty. could use some extra cleaning and Maintenance people.
Preparation.
They already made the challenger tank fire control system very, very, "nintendo handset" like...
https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/us-celebrity-news/meghan-markles-path-white-house-32841954
It's happening.
National service does not work , it's a mark of a failing society and poor rule or govenance, much like volunteering is a signe of economic insecurity and that bad times are predicted , when there is a poor forecast for the economy there tends to be a push for people to volunteer because it does reduce the strength of the workforce by instilling fear for job security by diluting the workforce saturating it with unqualified help that allows the qualified trained and able workforce to be gradually removed and as a result the stress and pressure on the staff who remain in increased and they appear to underperformed which in turn allows for a percieved justification to cut wages or review contract and then the increased pressures of the workplace overflow onto personal and family life , the ability , efficency , safty and standards in most areas where volunteering is prvelent , the wider longterm implications are only ever a deteriation in ability, quality and safty , the hand down lerning and skills gained over years of stability and consistency are very quickly lost ,in a matter of years thinks that have taken lifetimes of dedication and commitment from professionals with specific personal interests can be lost forever and society as a whole will seen a immediat decline from which there is no recovery and the longterm wider implications may be more gradual and appear more tolerable but the severity is much much worse , I do not volunteer, it's as much to do with standards of quality and individuals safty ability to perform as it is about workers rights , wages and pensions , I would only ever accept a longterm contracted position with fixed hours a wage or salaried a floating zero hours workforce is very dangerous to everyone who is here today and to the generations that will follow us .
Desmond you do make me laugh!
I agree about the cost and there being so many things to spend a limited pot of money on, I agree that I'd rather see it go to the NHS.
I do wonder if the military could train a generation thats so used to gaming to pilot drones?
I think it would make more sense for refuges to be allowed to work whilst they wait for their claims to be processed, many of them have valuable skills, but it would be even better if the claims were processed faster and more efficiently.
Personally I don't think its to soon to fret about it, although I wouldn't say I fretting about it, just raising it as an issue. I don't see it as being about skills, because would people be actually getting any skills? As we've seen with other schemes, people will be doing grunt work, sweeping floors etc? Will people have to have CRB or enhanced CRB checks depending on what work they volunteer for or are volunteered for? I don't see as this is supposedly voluntary how it will stop laziness or economic inactivity.
I agree that if we end up in a land war with Russia or whoever that it will be young people who become cannon fodder.
I do agree that people will be making a lot of money off the backs of the already poor and disenfranchised. I don't see how this will be any different, it will be PPE all over again.
As long as those kids won't be sent to war; then fine.
However, if the DemoPervs win the US Election, World-War-Three will be upon us; with the Possibility of 'Princess' Meghan as President.
And, should Labour romp home in July, we'll become even more supine.
It should at least offer the option of "work experience" for the current generation who regularly complain that jobs all require this now.
I'm sure there will be lots of politicians making money off this on the side through kickbacks from suppliers, but that has been the way for decades now regardless of who is in power, so I don't see it changing under Labour.
There will be winners and losers and it will get a lot of lazy people into being economically active rather than a drain on benefits and/or their parents. There will be those who suffer (neurodivergents for one group) but with such a broad reaching project this is inevitable.
Most of it will depend on the implementation so it is too soon to fret about it.
More importantly, if we do end up going to war with Russia then it will generate a load of cannon fodder easily diverted into the armed forces - the youngest generation are the most dispensible and are best suited to such things so it is a logical choice compared to trying to tempt people to sign up.
I suspect it would make a lot more sense to make this a requirement for refugees to be able to stay in the country, at least those able to work. It could also serve as a deterrent to those looking for a free ride.
I was thinking this earlier, especially the bit about volunteering in the NHS. Can’t speak for the whole NHS but we don’t have any use for volunteers in my department and we’re also so snowed under with referrals that we need to take on 10 more members of clinical staff and that’s without thinking about the extra equipment needed for them to use to perform extra tests. We would rather see some of the estimated £2.5bn cost put into our budget!