Gordon Brown's Slave Nation.

[Beorn]

Every teenager will have to do 50 hours of community work, Brown says

Every teenager will have to do at least 50 hours of community work before the age of 19, Gordon Brown has announced.
The Prime Minister believes youngsters would be less likely to turn to crime if they had a sense of citizenship. :rolleyes:

The scheme, a form of 'national service' for teenagers, will ensure they spend a minimum of 50 hours working with charities and vulnerable groups such as the elderly or disabled.
Forming part of Labour's next election manifesto, it will be woven into plans to make everyone stay in education or training until the age of 18 by 2011.

Mr Brown said: 'It is my ambition to create a Britain in which there is a clear expectation that all young people will undertake some service to their community, and where community service will become a normal part of growing up in Britain.
'And, by doing so, the contributions of each of us will build a better society for all of us.'

He added: 'That would mean young people being expected to contribute at least 50 hours of community service by the time they have reached the age of 19.
'This will build on the platform provided by citizenship classes :mad: as they develop in our schools.


'But because the greater part of what I envisage as community service takes place outside the school day, it will require the close involvement of local community organisations and charities.'

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/04/12/article-1169409-046AC8DF000005DC-349_468x286.jpg

Litter pick-ups is one example of community-minded projects teenagers could carry out

Writing for a Sunday newspaper, Mr Brown said the work would also be linked to a 'clear system of accreditation' so that young people would be able mark their achievements gained through the scheme.
The Prime Minister first proposed the idea of a National Youth Service to channel teenagers into voluntary work last year.
It is due to be formally launched in September, and would become compulsory if Labour was re-elected.

The scheme - which could include teenagers helping out charities both in Britain and abroad - is likely to become part of the National Curriculum.
Tory leader David Cameron is also proposing a voluntary 'citizen service' programme for 16-year-olds, which he sees as a 21st century version of National Service.
Under Mr Cameron's plans, school leavers and those going to college would take part in a six-week programme, which would include charity work and physical training.
Unlike Mr Brown's scheme, there would be no element of compulsion.

Police chiefs have previously urged the Government to introduce compulsory community service amid increasing rates of knife crime among teenagers.
Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner Alf Hitchcock last year suggested jobless teens should be sent on a non-military form of National Service to curb the rising tide of fatal stabbings.
He said that community service might stop youngsters being drawn into crime as a career and seeing gangs as a surrogate family.

Mr Hitchcock said: 'It should be something where they can learn skills and help people.
'It would give them a sense of responsibility and achievement - and some discipline.'
Mr Brown has previously floated the idea that migrants could also be obliged to carry out community work. -(In their native lands hopefully)-
This could help introduce them to those they would be living alongside and show they could contribute to society.
He said there needed to be a debate about what it means to be British in light of increasing numbers of minorities in the UK.Source (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1169409/Every-teenager-50-hours-community-work-Brown-says.html)




A 'National Youth Service'? Surely that would be a Hitler Youth if the BNP attempted it?

[Skandi]

Litter pick-ups is one example of community-minded projects teenagers could carry out


It should be something where they can learn skills and help people.

Yeah lot's of skills to be learnt there, damn stupid idea, if you want a national service then make one, but it would have to be paid! First it's 50 hours but that would soon go up when people realised that they had free labour on offer.

[Fortis in Arduis]

First it's 50 hours but that would soon go up when people realised that they had free labour on offer.

Absolutely, and New Fabia/Labia could never provide those jobs as paid positions, it goes against their 'principles'. Their capitalist masters would not allow it.

Yet, constrast this with their many well-paid positions which support the regime..

[YggsVinr]

Hmm...It's quite possible that I'm reading this incorrectly right now but what's wrong with community service? I'm not sure if it's a nation wide thing but in Ontario high schools we were required to do 40 hours of community service in order to graduate. You could work a local nursing home or hospital or something similar. It was implimented about a decade ago and it hasn't gone up since and I'm not sure it has anything to do with free labour, really. In a world where teenagers have an increasing disregard for their community I'm not sure I see what the issue is.

[Æmeric]

Hmm...It's quite possible that I'm reading this incorrectly right now but what's wrong with community service? It's wrong because it is serfdom. Why should the state be entitled to 40-hours of anyone's labor? And who is the beneficiary of this generousity via the state? Organizations with friends in powerful places? The whole mentally behind these sort of mandatory community service schemes, is that the citizenry are in fact the property of the state.:mad:

[RoyBatty]

I'm not against the idea of military conscription or community service as such (I was a military conscript) but the system needs to be fair and transparent and not be abused to excuse certain classes of citizens (the wealthy and the connected) while enslaving the poor who can't avoid it.

If Gordon and his corrupt NuLiebor Circus introduced a form of short compulsory community service FOR EVERYBODY (no exceptions) INCLUDING THEMSELVES, I see nothing wrong with it.

Unfortunately we all know that this is not what they have in mind.

[Manifest Destiny]

Absolutely, and New Fabia/Labia could never provide those jobs as paid positions, it goes against their 'principles'. Their capitalist masters would not allow it.

Yet, constrast this with their many well-paid positions which support the regime..

Forcing people to work for free (at the whim of the government, no less) is pretty much the epitome of anti-capitalism.

[Freomæg]

Perhaps if the youth were taking care of the jobs 'ordinary Brits don't want to do', we wouldn't need immigrants to come in and do them!? (a potential upside perhaps?)

In theory, and if this were being proposed for the correct reasons, I don't think it'd be such a terrible idea. However, as with everything, the government has an alterior motive and in this case it is - as Æmeric points out - to set the precedent that we belong to the State.

[Osweo]

Perhaps if the youth were taking care of the jobs 'ordinary Brits don't want to do', we wouldn't need immigrants to come in and do them!? (a potential upside perhaps?)
Quite, and it's often struck me that there are plenty of petty criminals who we can't imprison for lack of space who could be used profitably in this regard. Simple picking up litter and the like.
(There's a pretty straightforward couple of ways to shrink the prison population drastically, but never mind that now.)

I don't trust the present Government to do anything really. The less they do the better, as everything they get involved with turns out quite different to the 'spin'. :mad:

[YggsVinr]

It's wrong because it is serfdom. Why should the state be entitled to 40-hours of anyone's labor? And who is the beneficiary of this generousity via the state? Organizations with friends in powerful places? The whole mentally behind these sort of mandatory community service schemes, is that the citizenry are in fact the property of the state.:mad:

If you call giving back to your own community serfdom. I don't live in England so I may be missing the political context of all this, but over here I don't see how giving a mere 40 hours of community service is simply a way of benefitting those in powerful places and I think perhaps we've come to look for conspiracy theories in every corner these days.

To me, giving a few hours a week of work at a nursing home with people in your community who spent their lives contributing to the community you now live in isn't serfdom. In fact, I'm happy to do it. If I do chores for an elderly neighbour or family member without any fee, does that mean I'm allowing them to enslave me? It has nothing to do with enslavement. Working with people in your own direct community whom you have known for your entire life and have been members of your community their whole life is not slavery, but rather respect and understanding yourself as a part of that community since you are currently choosing to live within one.

I think its important for teenagers to learn that you both work to earn money/sustain yourself as well as to contribute something to your community. This behaviour is easily visible even going back as far as the sagas themselves. People allowed their neighbours and guests to stay in their homes for extended period of time, offering as much food and drink to them simply as guests, asking nothing in return but that they return the favour in their own time of need. Neighbours helped each other because they were neighbours. We've lost that for the most part in our highly urbanized/globalized world, unfortunately, so its no surprise that something like this would have to be "mandatory" these days to get the kind of low life teenagers that are growing up these days to actually get off their asses and do something useful.

As far as I can see they aren't asking students to go work for free in an immigrant community or in bloody Afghanistan or some other foreing nation, but their own community. If they were asking them to work in an immigrant community or for some big corporation then, yes, I'd have a problem with it. But I'm not sure I've read that here.

[Fortis in Arduis]

Forcing people to work for free (at the whim of the government, no less) is pretty much the epitome of anti-capitalism.

To clarify, if the government provided paid work if would go against the free-market.

There are efforts which are of great value to society, such as public works or tree planting which are totally outwith the market cycle, yet, the govt. would like to think that market forces can take care of them. ;)

[Freomæg]

I don't see how giving a mere 40 hours of community service is simply a way of benefitting those in powerful places
But that's the point isn't it. We're not 'giving' 40 hours, the proposition is to take 40 hours from every under 19. Now I agree that making it mandatory might be an unfortunate necessity, due to the lack of community spirit in some areas of Britain, but I just don't think that forcing someone to be a good samaritan makes them a good samaritan. It defeats the point.

Besides that, as with racial cohesion programmes, knife-crime initiatives and - to an extent - prison, it's another proposal which intends to solve problems too high up the stem and never close enough to the root. If the government really wanted to solve ferral youth and knife crime there are traditional, tried-and-tested, common-sense means of getting to the very root of the problem - and I'm sure they know this. Forcing rootless youths to act like good citizens is a waste of money and merely a superficial means of bolstering votes.

[Æmeric]

Think about it: This scheme could be forcing White youth to perform services free-of-charge for inner-city Negroes or Asians. Those are the people in multiracial societies who are always taking advantage of "free" community services.

[stormlord]

Yep, the problem with this is that just like Obama's "civilian force" thing, is that it will be used to inculcate left wing values (communitarianism, altruism towards foreign groups, forced charity, reliance on the state etc etc), as opposed to actual military service which inculcates conservative ones.

[Birka]

How about just the people on government welfare? Oh, that would be like work. But we don't need more government workers either, do we?

[Treffie]

Yeah lot's of skills to be learnt there, damn stupid idea, if you want a national service then make one, but it would have to be paid! First it's 50 hours but that would soon go up when people realised that they had free labour on offer.

I agree, National Service is a very good idea, but it should be based around the military and would be a good way of instilling core values which I think is absent in much of UK society these days.

[SwordoftheVistula]

Think about it: This scheme could be forcing White youth to perform services free-of-charge for inner-city Negroes or Asians. Those are the people in multiracial societies who are always taking advantage of "free" community services.

That's exactly what happens. Many schools in the US now require a certain amount of 'community service' to graduate, so the kids get put to work building houses for 'Katrina refugees'.


There are efforts which are of great value to society, such as public works or tree planting which are totally outwith the market cycle, yet, the govt. would like to think that market forces can take care of them. ;)

Logging companies plant trees, as do owners of residential properties who want to increase their land value.

[Birka]

My son had to do 3 days of "community service" to qualify for graduation from high school this year. He chose to work at a local state park, and help stock trout and other fish in the lake at the park. He really enjoyed it, (except for the sunburn----problems for ginger/redheads) and he fishes there anyway, so he helped do something that he will benefit from anyway.

I am glad he had a very positive experience doing his "service", but I am not sure how I feel about this. Shouldn't this have been voluntary? Is this not just giving the state more authority over our lives?

[Æmeric]

Why just 3-days? Why not 3-years? Oh wait, they use to do that, it was called the draft. Great scheme, you have to give your time & labor to the government & the government dictates the terms.:rolleyes: