MissAdventure
Yes, but it is for everyone.
No exceptions.
It's interesting how when this sinks in people often change their minds. Not unlike 'fewer young people should go to university', it's one of those things that a lot of people see as a great idea so long as it only applies to others.
If this is ever going to work (which it won't, as it will never get off the ground) it has to include everyone. How can some children be targeted and others not? Obviously that sort of unfairness happens all the time, so I'll rephrase that - how can an idea be sold as beneficial to the country and to a mass of young people if the middle classes are exempt?
There are far too many people who see themselves and their loved ones as exceptions to so many things, and that contributes to the divisions in society. Whether it's people taking time off work for stress and others picking up their work, students opting out of tricky assignments which others have to do, people working part-time and getting top-ups which give them the same take-home pay as full-time workers, means-testing locking those who have paid for pensions or have savings out of discounts available to those who haven't - it goes on and on, and of course the people on the 'wrong end' of this sort of thing are going to feel resentful.
Whether some of these things are set up to ensure that there are groups who can be looked down upon is a separate thread - resentment does take people's minds off government shenanigans - but letting people off national service because they are at university, or off in the Galapagos Islands on a gap year, or because their comfort zone is such that leaving their home town is bad for their mental health, or because their parents know how best to fill in the exemption forms to get them out of it is not going to end well. For once, Sunak seems to have got the point (or more likely he is fully aware that he won't ever need to see this through, and is passing the buck down the line to Starmer and co to sort out).
If someone had the sense to stop all the special pleading* and lay down a clear social contract that was fair to all, we might live in a happier society with no need for daft ideas like this one.
*for avoidance of doubt, I hope it goes without saying that this does not mean that I think there shouldn't be proper provision for those who are unable to do whatever it is - just that if someone chooses to opt out they shouldn't expect to be carried by others.
