Once more iDave raises the spectre of enforced servitude among the young. Oh, sure it sounds all cuddly at first glance:
The Oscar-winning actor Sir Michael Caine made a scene-stealing appearance in the election campaign today to endorse the Tories’ proposed National Citizen Service, which David Cameron predicted would “blow the bloody doors off”.
Well, he could be right about that bit.
The Conservatives are planning to offer all 16-year-olds the chance to join two-month summer residential courses with outdoor activities and community work to help them find their feet in society and realise their individual potential.
“Offer”. That sounds such a friendly word, doesn’t it? And, indeed, a purely voluntary system is all fine and dandy if people want to partake; I wouldn’t stop them – although I do object to being expected to pay for it via my taxes.
So, it’s voluntary, right? No problem, right? Er…
The scheme would initially be voluntary, but Mr Cameron set the goal of eventually ensuring that all 16-year-olds take part.
Ah, that’s “voluntary” as in the New Labour lexicon, whereby it actually means “compulsory”. There is a word for enforced servitude and that word is “slavery”. It is morally repugnant and we abolished it two hundred years ago. We do not belong to the state. The state has no right to our service and this scheme is deeply, deeply obnoxious and any right minded person should be appalled by it.
Mr Cameron, for his part, welcomed the echoes of national service and implied that they were deliberate – even if they might put off some of the youngsters the scheme needs to attract.
The 43-year-old is too young to have performed national service himself but said that while he was at Eton he had volunteered both as a cadet and for voluntary work, helping old people in nearby Windsor, “which I hugely enjoyed”.
So much so that he now wishes to force others to do likewise. When I was sixteen, you wouldn’t have dragged me screaming and kicking into such a scheme. Being something of a loner, I wanted to look after myself and still do thirty odd years later. I certainly didn’t need the state to help me find my individual potential – I managed that all by myself; being an individual.
Politicians are supposed to serve us, not the other way around. Vote for iDave and bring back slavery. Is that the change he keeps banging on about? All I see is yet another shyster who fails to understand that he is the servant and the electorate the master.
Next thing you know it’ll be singing ‘Comrade Tito’ round the camp fire.
.-= My last blog ..Tractor Production Up; chocolate ration sure to rise =-.
They don’t even have to make it compulsory, just make it known that anyone applying for a Government funded job, including quangos and fake charities, needs to have <volunteered. That will allow them to keep a veneer of respectability yet make it clear that they expect everyone to <volunteer.
.-= My last blog ..I’m determined to vote in the GE – but who for? =-.
“Mr Cameron, for his part, welcomed the echoes of national service and implied that they were deliberate – even if they might put off some of the youngsters the scheme needs to attract. “
Because, of course, if he gets his way, the scheme won’t ‘need to attract’ people for very long.
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National Service and no illegal downloads…
Tough being a teenager these days. God knows what they’d do if they had to sit proper exams.
.-= My last blog ..Grand National – What Not To Back =-.
There is a word for enforced servitude and that word is “slavery”.
Well, they’re spending £13m in 2011 and £37m in 2012, and roughly 653,000 16 yr olds in 2011, and 650,000 in 2012.
Since there’s no actual mention of how may hours per day are spend doing this, I’ll assume 8hrs x 5 days x 8 weeks. = 200 hours.
So £13m / 653,000 / 200 = 10p/hr
£37m / 650,000 / 200 = 28.5p/hr
Of course, if they’re working less than 40 hrs/week, their hourly rate will go up…
… what do you mean they’re not getting paid?