So… not compulsory then? Or do you just get fined or something? Anyway, earliest policy U-turn of the Conservative campaign so far - will it be their best?
In the first major policy announcement of his election campaign, Rishi Sunak pledged to introduce a form of mandatory national service whereby 18-year-olds would either join the military for 12 months or do volunteer work at weekends.
Even if it was compulsory, 12 months training and being shot doesn’t seem a great option compared to weekend voluntary work.
I could see an argument for a year of something like a Green Corps for a year at 18 that would give everyone a collective experience helping improve the country (rewilding, working on local parks, etc) but throwing in National Service too just seems like pandering to the gammon vote.
I wish there was a meaningful civilian corps in my country. The military tends to offer two selling points:
- Employer of last resort that takes most-all comers
- Disciplined, all-inclusive experience
which would be valuable for many young adults, but there’s no reason we can’t get a similar model without the whole “die for hegemony/oil/to impress rightwong voters that you’re tough” factor. Surely we’ve got plenty of Corps of Engineers atyle grunt work thete.
So a fine. And when poverty stricken youngsters fail to pay that fine. Removal directly from their benifits. Or garnish wages.
So basically a cheap pass for the wealthy. Screw the poor as normal.
Edit: What makes this worse. Its just more of the tories trying to ignite another culture war.
They picked on disabled as after 14 years of crap. Few sane disabled people have any hope of voting tory. So let’s use them as a victim to convince everyone they are scroungers.
Now rather then trying to inspire the young to vote tory. They attack them with oxymoron mandatory vollenteer work. In an attempt to win back boomer votes who see all youth entitled and as in need of teaching a lesson.
Rather then admit the harm the last 40 plus years of voting, has done to the future of our youth.
And honestly as a 53yo. It is not like the current housing costs and climate crap. Has not been predicted since the 1970s. Voters my age and older have been working to ignore this for generations.
“Nobody will go to jail for refusing national service. You’ll get a fine instead.”
“What happens if you can’t or won’t pay the fine?”
“You go to jail.”
Hilarious to have to issue this clarification.
It’s mandatorish.
“punishable by a fine” == the rich can buy their way out of it.
Yep. If a fine doesn’t scale with wealth, then it’s just a fee for doing illegal shit.
I don’t have the skills.
But now really wish someone would hack a few tory social media accounts. And post claims the fine will be based on the family wealth of the avoider
Tory voters would suffer mass heart attacks when they calculate what it will cost to free their Tarquins.
