eurealist.co.uk

There seems to be a certain theme running through the “middle ground” of political debate in this country, something to do with making us all appreciate being British, or something that something is needed to bring us all together, or as Davis Cameron says “something we all did together” what with Gordon Brown’s flag waving episode last week and Tony Blair’s attempts to create “respect for the state” -or was it Parliament, or government or perhaps “himself” - ideas. All this seems to boil down to the political classes trying to do something towards strengthening a British demos, which considering the anti-nationalistic moves and the forced devolution of the past few decades would be very funny, if it were not so well….funny!

Last year we had the report of the “Russell Commission” set up by Gordon Brown, who not only donated £150 million out of the public pocket to the scheme, but said that the Heritage Lottery Fund, Sports England and the Government were joining together to create Britain’s first national community service for young people.
Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, said: “When young people, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, get actively involved in their communities, the benefits - to the young person, to the local groups they support and to the wider community - are clear for all to see.

“By nurturing and developing the leaders of tomorrow the whole of society will benefit.”

Dame Elisabeth Hoodless, the executive director of Community Service Volunteers, the UK’s largest volunteering charity, said: “We look to a time when our public services, like those in the United States, ensure that 10 per cent of their person power comes from committed citizens.”

So is young David jumping on a NuLabour “Bandwagon”, when yesterday he said in a speech to voluntary group leaders that; “School leavers should be forced to do three or four months of community service”, although he was kind enough to say he “did not want to bring back National Service, but wanted young people to have the same feeling of achieving” “something we all did together”.” If it [community service] isn’t compulsory or if it isn’t universal it could tend to be something else that well-off families do because it’s good for their kids.
“But it would not reach some of the most marginalized families and excluded children who actually would really benefit.”

I don’t know if this is Fascism or Communism, but it not democratism and certainly it is not Conservatism!

As Tim Worstall says on his Blog:

“Now this is voluntary work remember. No pay. (If it was for pay it would be just as bad in one way and worse in another. Why pay 18 year olds to do something when we could have experienced people doing it? Bang goes productivity.)
He is seriously suggesting that all people should work, unpaid, for the State.
This is Fascism folks, foul and vile idea that the interests of the State trump those of the individual. That our labour is something at the disposal of said State, that we are mere helots to be told what to do as the Lords and Masters desire.
There are disgusting overtones of the Lord’s Days on a medieval manor, those days when labour was owed to the feudal master rather than the individual.”

It might be a good plan if those who are now trying to force the citizen to commit to the state in various ways, would make their collective minds up for once and for all. If we are to be EU Citizens and the Nations state is dead, as the intergrationalist would have us all believe, then what is the point in committing to an empty vessel that the British state has become.