What Is Sunak’s National Service Pledge And Will It Work?

Is the gap between public opinion of Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak narrowing already? Have the Conservatives stolen Rory's idea for a compulsory national service? What tactics are being used to suppress democracy in India?

Rory and Alastair discuss all this and more in today's episode of The Rest Is Politics.

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[hubertcumberdale]

As I saw someone say, this election is now a choice between Labour and forced labour.

[largesatsuma]

My Dad was born in 1946, so missed out on National Service. My grandparents, both of whom served in WW2, were delighted he wouldn't have to do it. It's a myth that everyone looks back upon National Service with nostalgia.

[ellarose]

As a 25 year old who relied on the money gained from my waitressing job at 18 to get me through university, I fear that national service would have made it almost impossible for me to hold down a job. I volunteer as much as I can do but this isn’t ideal at all for most.

[martinbennett]

Have anyone thought up introducing national service for pensioners? Sympathetically administered it could be a helpful way of preparing people entering retirement to adapt to a change in life style and enable them to make use of their skills and experience in ways that contribute to the community.

[viengua]

Fundamentally, the people they're asking to give service to the country don't owe that.

We've had a consistent reduction of rights and privileges [free movement, declining public services], had our tuition fees increased and had student loans with ridiculous interest rates imposed [after being told a university degree is the only way to be successful and independent], been sneered at, ignored, patronised, and had causes we passionately believe in trampled into political footballs or culture war wedges.

Frankly, it doesn't feel like we're the ones who should be doing national service.

[tobyalan]

National service appealing to people who never had to do it.

[louishigh]

My uncle actually did National Service in the early 1950s. This policy just made him chuckle in the way that only someone of that age can.

[richardbourn]

Sorry Rory and Alastair, the concept of "mandatory volunteering" is odious and amounts to compelling labour without paying for it. Drooling over the ability to replace military and services personnel with unpaid volunteers demonstrates how degraded out national services are, and if the solution isnt making them attractive and interesting to people, but forcing the young to do it on pain of some kind of sanction is crazy to me. Im 37 so it wouldn't affect me personally, but if it were me, I would hate every second of it and remember that for the rest of my life.

[joshme]

Maybe they should force Alister and Rory to spend their weekends making coffees for nhs staff

[peterdollins]

1960 I worked the GWR Steam Engines with my Driver a rear guard at Dunkirk. My Uncles fought everywhere. We heard from ex-NS men of the grim, boring, waste of time NS. I was happy to miss it.  My father complained NS turned men into cynical skivers. Military spending has fallen from 2.5% under Labour to 2% or less under Tories so the US military recently rated the UK military as no longer First rate. I suspect this distraction gimmick is, in part, designed to cover this over.

[andrew]

A dreadful policy idea.

Some need to work weekends, some need to rest if already in full time employment, and some want to do their own thing.

It also sounds like something the children of the wealthy will have a better time of it, or find a way to get out of it.

[CloudhoundCoUk]

Public schools must lose their charitable status.
They must pay VAT.
Students' parents can well afford to pay.

[specialized]

Unpaid compulsory volunteering ? Seems a bit odd to me . Working for nothing should be truly on a voluntary basis

[Kotch]

Compulsory national service is not a “good idea”. My daughters have been volunteering since the age of 14, first encouraged by school (for extra credits and as part of coursework) and also as part of the Duke of Edinburgh scheme, after which they continued even after getting the gold award, helping in the community and they also volunteer now they are adults. And the Tories want to force them to do even more?

This whole “young people don’t do enough” on the one side of the people supporting it is probably what they all really think.

On the other side the Ministers are saying young people want to help. They can and do already and the infrastructure exists so why do we have to pay £2.5 Bn to Group 4 or whichever company slipped the bung up this time?

Finally, we have 75, 000 soldiers. There are 10x as many 18 year olds. How the F is that going to work??

[jamesdecross]

Isn't Sunak a generation too late to argue for National Service. Retired people today still count their lucky stars for missing out by just days or weeks. Does he really think retired folk are malicious?

[mikeakachorlton]

I don't see the positives at all in forcing young people to 'volunteer' when that really means undertake forced free labour. It was a stupid idea when the Tories tried using volunteering to replace the services they destroyed during the Austerity era, it's a stupid idea now. This is the toughest it's ever been to be a young adult since the war, the financial pressures on them are way worse than you ever knew at your age, and you blithely sit there saying it would be good to force them to work for free on top of that? Read the details of what Sunak proposed, compare it to the definitions in the Modern Slavery Act 2015, and Article 4 of the European Convention, have a think and get a grip.

[buzzukfiftythree]

My brother in law did National Service in the mid 1950s and was one of those sent out to Christmas Island to witness the nuclear tests. No protection was given to them and subsequently, hundreds of them have died prematurely; even some of their offspring have. NS cannot be done on the cheap; it needs huge resources and the logistical requirements needed for it are enormous. This is not the 1950s.

[benlowe]

Why don't we just make everyone work with no pay? Then it would be equal. In fact, we could bring down that NHS waiting list, by mandating that people volunteer their time to help out the NHS.
What's that? That would be immoral? Huh.

[hmrobert]

How about they require every able bodied person over age 16 to put in 10 to 20 days of unpaid labour per year like they did in the Middle Ages?

If this National Service is so beneficial, why not get everyone into it? Why not let lonely pensioners benefit from working for free? Come on Rory and Alistar, there are plenty of food banks open for you and your mates to serve in!

[jchinuk]

This whole "National Service" announcement is misleading at best, according to the briefings, the "brightest & best" will be the 30, 000 selected for the forces, doing " logistics, cyber security, procurement or civil response operations", so basically office jobs for public school pupils.

As around 775, 000 people become 18 each year, about 25 out of 26 will be doing the Community Volunteering option, which will be "volunteering with organisations such as the NHS, fire service, ambulance, search and rescue, and critical local infrastructure". Given the plans for a weekend a month for a year, will the emergency services have the capacity to train these three quarters of a million 18 year olds? I worked in the NHS, the mandatory courses will take up at least one, probably two, weekends alone.

No doubt, the idea is to convince older voters, who would have to be in their eighties to have done the original 'National Service', that the groups of teens hanging about the local shops will be given 'decent haircuts' and marching up and down without any point. This is obviously a myth.

The most annoying aspect is that I know a lot of teenagers volunteer already, at care homes, heritage museums, in the Scouts and Guides, all of which Mr. Sunak apparently considers worthless.

By the way, my Dad was called up in 1945, but the war ended before his basic training was complete. He ended up in Gaza (how topical) trying to prevent Jewish migration to Palestine (once again, how topical).