UK: Every teenager will have to do 50 hours of community work, Brown says
Whether or not you agree with this sort of thing, there is no way to get around the fact that it is state-enforced servitude. And that is a direct frontal assault on your right to your own life. The idea is being floated simultaneously in the UK, Canada, the US, and probably elsewhere in the former commonwealth states as well. At the end of this road is the regimentation and militarization of Western culture – all it takes is one generation of indoctrination by ‘National Curriculum’
Flashback: US Senate Rubber Stamps National Enslavement Bill | UK Home Secretary unveils civilian anti-terrorism security force | US Congress passes mandatory national service bill | Time to emulate Roosevelt’s New Deal and create green jobs | New World Order Crony Gary Hart Calls for “Civic Duty” | Justin Trudeau introduces National Voluntary Service motion | US Democrats Introduce Public National Service Bills
Kirsty Walker, Daily Mail
April 13, 2009
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.
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 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.’
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.
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.
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