The voluntary service idea
David Cameron has stolen my idea! Ok granted, I had my idea a few years back and I didn’t exactly copyright it or blab it off to anyone so I can only assume this means the Conservatives are a few years behind me in terms of political thinking? They have also changed the focus slightly, so their idea is perhaps more up to date than mine.
David Cameron has floated his idea of teenagers doing some form of citizen’s national service. This can be military training or voluntary work and the Tories seem to hint that such an idea would be sponsored by government. I like the way this is being portrayed as an original concept when it really is anything but. Cameron has actually stolen this idea from what public schools do (including his old school Eton) which is that everyone has to do an ‘approved’ activity for at least one day a week. Most people get signed up for the Combined Cadet Force, but quite a lot will go and do voluntary style work as an alternative. Despite the shameless plagiarism, I actually think this is a good and sensible idea. Labour must be kicking themselves for not thinking of it first, but considering their hatred of private schools it isn’t a surprise they would not know about or want to adopt such a sensible concept!
My idea I have to confess, although in a similar vein, is actually a little (but only a little) more original. Admittedly the Tory inspiration was proposing this for children (this directly hits the young yob culture issues) but my idea was aimed at adults. Quite simply, employers would be obliged to allow everyone to take an extra 5 days on top of their leave entitlement to do voluntary work. The employee would have to ‘certify’ that they have done voluntary work as opposed to having bummed at home for the week, but the short story is that companies could have ‘approved’ voluntary schemes which their employees could invest a lot in. Employees get a week of good deeds a year (which could encourage them to do more in their free time), employer gets happier employees who (get extra days off in line with the rest of Europe!) can also learn other useful ‘soft’ or ‘complimentary’ skills. The UK gets far more people doing voluntary work, this is a win for all.
My complimentary idea to this would be the UK using an ‘adopt a 3rd nation’ sort of idea where the government would subsidise and strictly regulate companies and volunteers to go and develop a specific country. The idea would be, to target one country in desperate need of develop and target aid and development and develop their infrastructure and education to a point where they can continue the rest of the work themselves. Quite simply you fix 3rd world countries one at a time rather than inefficiently scatter useless and short term aid all over the place. If everyone in the UK was entitled to a week of paid voluntary work and the government subsidised the flights over, accommodation etc then that country could have a steady stream of people developing it. Good for UK, good for world image and actually makes a difference. Of course such a policy would need strict regulation to prevent exploitation etc but I rather like it as a concept.
Reckon I should try and float this idea over to Tory HQ? ;)
David Cameron has floated his idea of teenagers doing some form of citizen’s national service. This can be military training or voluntary work and the Tories seem to hint that such an idea would be sponsored by government. I like the way this is being portrayed as an original concept when it really is anything but. Cameron has actually stolen this idea from what public schools do (including his old school Eton) which is that everyone has to do an ‘approved’ activity for at least one day a week. Most people get signed up for the Combined Cadet Force, but quite a lot will go and do voluntary style work as an alternative. Despite the shameless plagiarism, I actually think this is a good and sensible idea. Labour must be kicking themselves for not thinking of it first, but considering their hatred of private schools it isn’t a surprise they would not know about or want to adopt such a sensible concept!
My idea I have to confess, although in a similar vein, is actually a little (but only a little) more original. Admittedly the Tory inspiration was proposing this for children (this directly hits the young yob culture issues) but my idea was aimed at adults. Quite simply, employers would be obliged to allow everyone to take an extra 5 days on top of their leave entitlement to do voluntary work. The employee would have to ‘certify’ that they have done voluntary work as opposed to having bummed at home for the week, but the short story is that companies could have ‘approved’ voluntary schemes which their employees could invest a lot in. Employees get a week of good deeds a year (which could encourage them to do more in their free time), employer gets happier employees who (get extra days off in line with the rest of Europe!) can also learn other useful ‘soft’ or ‘complimentary’ skills. The UK gets far more people doing voluntary work, this is a win for all.
My complimentary idea to this would be the UK using an ‘adopt a 3rd nation’ sort of idea where the government would subsidise and strictly regulate companies and volunteers to go and develop a specific country. The idea would be, to target one country in desperate need of develop and target aid and development and develop their infrastructure and education to a point where they can continue the rest of the work themselves. Quite simply you fix 3rd world countries one at a time rather than inefficiently scatter useless and short term aid all over the place. If everyone in the UK was entitled to a week of paid voluntary work and the government subsidised the flights over, accommodation etc then that country could have a steady stream of people developing it. Good for UK, good for world image and actually makes a difference. Of course such a policy would need strict regulation to prevent exploitation etc but I rather like it as a concept.
Reckon I should try and float this idea over to Tory HQ? ;)