Uncharted Thoughts.

It was announced by British Prim minister Rishi Sunak last week that the Conservative party have plans to enforce a national service for teenagers leaving education. The Sunak administration implied that the national service will be mandatory for all 18 year olds.

Although the details of the matter need to be ironed out, there seems to be two schemes available to teenagers if the Conservative party win the 2024 election.

Option One: Community Volunteering

Choosing the community volunteering role will imply 25 days of working within the teenagers local community. Be it for the Police, Fire Department, NHS or for local charities. The teenagers will have to free up one weekend a month and attend these non paid roles to help their communities.

Option Two: Military Training.

The military training option is left out for those that can pass numerous test and are hand selected as the best candidates for the role. It is estimated that the U.K. teenagers of 2025 will have to delegate at least thirty thousands people to join the military. Working along side the Army, Navy and RAF to fill in the ranks. As it stands this conscription seems to last for twelve months and is a paid role.

Military conscription.

Conscription and National Service are not the same. Conscription is a forced mobilisation of civilians to join the military in times of war. For example, in the first World War, and the Vietnam war, members of the public were assigned military duties that if declined by the indevidual a criminal investigation will be held and legal action taken if the person is found guilty.

National Service however, is usually a mandatory service imposed on a population of young adults that have finished their education, at least early years education that usually concludes around 16 or 18 years old. The National Service can anything from military, public or community services providing the needs of the government. Usually, however not always, failure to comply with a national service will not result in imprisonment.

The U.K. hasn’t seen a National Service program since the 1960s, of which the final National Service man was discharged in 1963. I say man, because the last National Service enforcement of woman was abolished in 1945, after the second World War.

At the beginning of the year 1949, all able men, fit and healthy were to be placed in military training of some sort for 18 months minimum, remaining on the reservist list for an additional four years after in case of a national or international conflict.

Since then, the very idea of a conscription has soured, and as a libertarian of sorts I can’t help but agree. Although there are countries with conscription today, those include Finland, Vietnam, North and South Korea, Turkey and Israel. It is my belief that the children of a free country such as the United Kingdom, or for any country for that matter, do not belong to the government, rather the government is there to serve its people, not offer their young up for slaughter.

Perhaps to say that the government is offering up our children to the slaughter isn’t entirely accurate. Besides, we are not at war… yet. and, military experience doesn’t mean front line fighting. So, I suppose that the slaughter argument doesn’t hold up entirely.

But what if that was to change, what if, we were at war. Our 18 year old sisters and brothers will be sent to a conflict that they and we may not support. What if, Russia invades Poland. What if, we have another proxy war with the middle east? I do not believe in mystical or superstitious foresight, however, to suggest a war in the next ten years will not be a folly insight into the current global affairs. As the worlds militaries begin to shift uncomfortable, I will not be willing to offer up my son or daughter to a government that has let its people down, time and time again.

Community volunteering.

The U.K. is currently in an economic crisis, energy bills are sky high, the property ladder is broken, house hold items such as food, toiletries and cleaning product have surpassed rationality, fuel is high, nursery prices are extortionate as are taxes and the NHS is dying. The Conservative party is suggesting that youngest workers of our island are to go out of their way to volunteer their free time to do unpaid labour. When, may I add, their hourly rate of pay, is £2.80 less than a 21 year old.

I think the idea of teenagers being encouraged to help their local community is great, it will help open doors for them, as well as help with local issues such as homelessness and poverty (Once again the government using the young to sort out issues it has implemented). But for free? Absolutely not. Not only should they be paid, but they should be paid the same wages as 21 year olds. There shouldn’t be three separate gaps in wages because of age. Perhaps there is an argument for why 16-17 year olds get paid less, but once someone is 18, they pay taxes and they are entitled to most jobs. So why are they getting paid less?

If the conservatives want the youth of today to fix this country, at least pay them to do it. Don’t force them into slave labour. They may not be spending money in a way that suits the government, but let them go travelling, let them go out drinking, or invest in hobbies they have. Stop trying to take away from a already deprived youth.

It was registered just some months ago, that most criminals sentenced to community service managed to slip away avoiding one third of their sentencing. So why are we suggesting our law abiding teenagers do the work that could help non law abiding citizens find work.

The Tories have lost already.

Lets be honest. This backfired. In light of the general election, the conservative party has realised its fighting a battle, a battle uphill, in the rain, with no armour and a stick for a sword. Their last eight years, have been abysmal. Conflicts within its own party, three leaders stepping down in the space of four years. Illegal activity while in lock down, a crumbling NHS. This conscription is a deadly attempt to keep old voters on their side, at the expense of the youth, the future of this once great country.

Rishi is willing to put our youth in the firing line, at one of the most militarily hot periods we have had since the early 2000s for old people to vote for him. He cares nothing about serving the people of the United Kingdom. He cares only for another term in office.

If the conservatives were as concerned about ‘life skills’ for the youth of today, perhaps they should look at the state of the education system, or maybe sort out the terrible apprenticeship schemes we have here in the U.K. Rather than suggesting our children become slave labour to a government that can’t fix its own issues.