26-12-2021, 10:15 AM
National service but not in armed forces
" To re energise our country & gird it for the struggles ahead, we need our young to be committed to the future of their community & their nation, as well as themselves.
I feel strongly that mandatory service to the state has got to return to these shores. I am not speaking about the sort of National service that entails square bashing & grinding individuality down to a pulp.
I am not advocating that young people be taught how to be fodder for the wars of the old. Nor am I suggesting that we return to a regimented patriotism that is yellow with prejudice & narrow-mindedness.
Instead, we need a national service that obliges all young people during their gap year to travel the country & learn about their neighbouring regions.
We cannot appreciate the difficulties of being either a Londoner or a rural farm worker in Yorkshire unless we have experienced their lives first hand. For the sake of our country’s future, the young need to interact with different communities, different lifestyles, & different religions."
MP salaries
"Since the majority of us can never aspire to the life style of our rulers we must insist that future govts really represent us. There have to be term limits for prime ministers, lords, & MPs. Govt should be as the USA constitution aptly states; ’for & by the people.’ It is time that we made Westminster less a rite of passage for the elite & truly a house for the public to meet & steer Britain effectively & justly through this century."
Harry’s last stand; how the world my generation built is falling down & what we can do to save it, Harry Leslie Smith.
" To re energise our country & gird it for the struggles ahead, we need our young to be committed to the future of their community & their nation, as well as themselves.
I feel strongly that mandatory service to the state has got to return to these shores. I am not speaking about the sort of National service that entails square bashing & grinding individuality down to a pulp.
I am not advocating that young people be taught how to be fodder for the wars of the old. Nor am I suggesting that we return to a regimented patriotism that is yellow with prejudice & narrow-mindedness.
Instead, we need a national service that obliges all young people during their gap year to travel the country & learn about their neighbouring regions.
We cannot appreciate the difficulties of being either a Londoner or a rural farm worker in Yorkshire unless we have experienced their lives first hand. For the sake of our country’s future, the young need to interact with different communities, different lifestyles, & different religions."
MP salaries
"Since the majority of us can never aspire to the life style of our rulers we must insist that future govts really represent us. There have to be term limits for prime ministers, lords, & MPs. Govt should be as the USA constitution aptly states; ’for & by the people.’ It is time that we made Westminster less a rite of passage for the elite & truly a house for the public to meet & steer Britain effectively & justly through this century."
Harry’s last stand; how the world my generation built is falling down & what we can do to save it, Harry Leslie Smith.
in order to be old & wise, you must first be young & stupid. (I'm still working on that.)