We need universal and compulsory – non-military, but uniformed, ranked and barracked – National Service, between secondary education and tertiary education or training.
As much as anything else, this would send people to university that little bit worldly-wiser, which would not only be good for academic and behavioural standards, but would also drain such swamps as Marxism, anarcho-capitalism, and the marriage of the two in neoconservatism. No one who had been around even a little bit would ever fall for such things for one moment.
Of course, that is also a very good reason for broadening the social and socio-economic base from which students, and indeed academics, are drawn. Instead of “widening participation” by abolishing everything in which one might wish to participate, and then only letting in the offspring of the upper middle classes anyway, on the smug assumption of having done one’s bit.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Not for the first time, the world is coming round to your way of thinking, not the other way round. Not for the last time, I hope.
ReplyDeleteMichael Caine is wasted on the Conservatives, he ought to be backing you. It would solve your financial problems instantly.
ReplyDeleteHe'd have to put a tie on.
ReplyDeleteOh, really? I was thinking about making a donation (not £10,000 - can't afford it - but a four-figure sum) but I never wear a tie. Does that mean I'm barred?
ReplyDeleteGive a four figure sum and you can wear a pink tutu as far as I'm concerned.
ReplyDeleteYou are right though, he did look silly in the Cameron costume at his age. Cameron himself struggles to carry it off when no airbrushing is available.
ReplyDeleteOn topic, please.
ReplyDeleteWhat would the uniform look like?
ReplyDeleteRanked - how long does this last, and how does one get promotion?
ReplyDeleteDavid Cameron and Michael Caine are doubtless working on the answers to both of those questions as I write.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm sure that you can imagine, and there is no shortage of countries with National Service to which to look. The difference is that we wouldn't be compromising our professional defence forces. Nor would we be drawing a dividing line between conscientious objectors and everyone else.
I feel the need, in all modesty, to agree with the first comment on this post.
Still you are right to be underwhelmed at the suggestion of Caine giving his support. Some very distinguished thespians have backed some very dubious organisations and a fear that comparisons might be drawn must be, hyperthetically, considered.
ReplyDeleteSir Michael would be more than welcome.
ReplyDeleteIs the Cameron Corps to be called "The Self-Preservation Society", or will that only be the motto on the badges and flags?
Why not just abolish their benefits?
ReplyDeleteWhose benefits? I'm talking about everyone in the age bracket. Like National Service used to be. As much as anything else, this is about building a coherent society, without which there can be no patriotism, just as there can be no social cohesion, and thus no social democracy, without support for the family and other traditional institutions. It demands the participtaion of all classes.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't Switzerland still have a form of national service after the style advocated by Mr Lindsay here?
ReplyDeleteI don't know what the situation is now, but ten years ago (as a Google search will reveal) Switzerland compelled all its physically and mentally fit males to serve, if only part-time, in the military from age 20 to age 50. A Swiss male was not obliged to serve in an actual combat unit, so if he was a Quaker or a conscientious objector he could work in military administration or with an ambulance team. Switzerland being a civilised country then (and perhaps still), women were banned from all combat units.
Those prevented from all military service for genuine reasons of health (we can safely assume that "genuine reasons of health" did not include the currently fashionable "Asperger's" or "bipolar disorder") were not ordered to undergo it. But they were taxed at a higher rate than were their conscripted brethren.
Altogether it seemed as near to an ideal system as fallen human nature could operate; and I can only hope that it remains in force. Oh yes, and naturally no Swiss government has ever dared to do what the "conservatives" John Major and John Howard did: filch law-abiding citizens' guns.
I am not advocating military service. The operational efficiency of the British Armed Forces depends on its all-volunteer composition.
ReplyDelete