When I first heard the news that the Conservatives were planning to bring back National Service, I thought it was some kind of joke, or internet meme. But then I discovered that in fact they had just lost the plot.
If I were an undecided voter, this policy would ensure that I did not vote for the Tories, no question, so I am thinking that Rishi Sunak must have ulterior motives to sabotage his own chances. Perhaps a nice bonus, or a stress-free job in the Bahamas or something? But I am not interested in Sunak’s early retirement plans. What I am concerned with is why any party would feel this is acceptable and what it would mean for our young people?
There are those who are saying that it’s not so bad – you don’t have to go into the army, (although the incentive to do so is that this option is paid), you can choose volunteer work instead. Although this is compulsory. Now, ‘compulsory volunteering’ is an oxymoron of course, and I can’t think of anything more moronic! Everyone knows that if you force someone to do anything, then apart from infringing on their rights as humans, you will never foster respect from them. You will nurture only fear and then inspire rebellion.
My generation had it relatively easy in their youth. I had a good education and a student grant; my son has come out of University with a huge debt, little chance of owning a house before he is 40, and fewer jobs to choose from than I had. I feel I must apologise on behalf of my generation and the one that came before me (the products of the baby-booming and liberated sixties) because as well as making life harder, as well as damaging the planet, as well as failing to compensate for the trauma, isolation and gaps in education attributable to lockdown, a government who is totally remote from the lives of ordinary people now want to heap blame and punishment on to the young who are supposed to be our future. What have the Tories got to offer as a policy? Either join the armed forces (to make up a pitiful shortfall in our country’s defences) or work for nothing in jobs we usually assign to criminals. Hmm.
The dubious reasoning behind this proposal is to enable young people to learn about the ‘real world’ and create opportunities for future employment. Mr Sunak, when did you first realise as a billionaire that you were such an expert on the ‘real world’? I put it to you that perhaps the people who come up with these policies would wilt like daisies when faced with some of the issues so many young people have to deal with in the real world. In fact, though, life and living is the ‘real world’. Who decides what experiences are more valid than others? Is being a student not ‘real’? Is being an artist not ‘real’? Don’t even get me started on the cuts to arts and creative funding – it seems that money is the only worthy goal and we are all soon destined to become robots in the production factory designed to serve the greater ‘good’ rather than being free to choose our own destinies or creative expressions. Don’t forget that not long ago it was put forward that we should all be studying maths as a compulsory subject until aged 18. I can’t deny practical maths is useful in life – I can count my money and I can tell if someone is ripping me off – but I have seen younger people who have studied and passed GCSE who are unable to do any sort of mental arithmetic whatsoever, so clearly something is wrong, and I myself would have felt studying ‘how long it takes a man to dig a hole’, or ‘what angle my ladder might be if I painted my house’, for two more years, to be a waste of time I could be devoting to the real talents I have. In the same way, literacy is vital, but even as an English teacher I wouldn’t want my computer whizzkids and maths geniuses to continue to be forced to analyse Dickens and poetry beyond their immediate enjoyment of it once they were adults. As I said, forcing young people into anything is not the way to foster production and respect. If you want to create fully rounded adults, don’t treat them like children.
The whole idea implies that all young people are undisciplined, immature and unruly. In my experience, they are not. I teach some intelligent, mature, lively and passionate individuals. They do not have pre-formed prejudices; they care about working hard and about others. They are our future, so why are we so intent on crushing their spirit before they have a chance to emerge from their shells? Why do we punish our young and blame them for our faults? A policy forcing young people to ‘serve their country’ in ways they may not choose, delaying their real goals, is the equivalent of a whole class detention. I never liked this as a teacher or student, and one of the reasons I left teaching in a school was the way school had become a corporate concern; a business.
The other reason for the return of National Service, we are told, is that it brings back national patriotism and pride. Yes, we all know how that might go: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. I do believe our young should mobilise an army – an army of independent free thinkers who stand up and fight for their rights. Stand up and protest at all the blows against democracy. I definitely will be using my vote, making it count to make a change.
Virginia Betts 