Soft and jobless: Should military be a ‘dumping ground’ for ‘workshy’ youths on benefits?

What should Britain do with its three million young, jobless benefits claimants?

#politics #brokenbritain #benefits #welfare #lazy #unemployment #army #military

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Lays bear the shocking state of Britain’s parole system but first it’s time for tonight’s Head to Head a senior Tory MP with years of military service has called for Young Job Seekers who turned down work to be conscripted Richard Drax a former British Army captain and current member

Of the common defense select committee told the house magazine in some cases particularly among some of the young they have got to the point where they’re not prepared to contribute to our country and to serve their country and if they’ve refused three offers of a job

Or whatever the number would be you must go and do two years in the armed forces well that getting working wouldn’t it this comes as officials warn today that young people are fueling a worklessness crisis in Britain with nearly 3 million under 25s neither employed nor looking

For a job almost 4 million adults are also being paid benefits without any requirement for them to search for employment and that is an absolute disgrace tonight I’m asking should Young Job Seekers who turn down work face conscription let me know your thoughts gbvs atgb news.com tweet me at GB news

While you’re there make sure you vote in our poll the results to follow shortly but first going head to head on this our former Forkland veteran Simon Weston and political commentator Connor Tomlin and both of you thank you very much great to have you both on the show Connor I’ll

Start with you should the workshy young be made to go and fight or at least do some milit trading well some time ago Patrick I was on your show arguing against conscription for Gen Z to go and fight with boots on the ground in Ukraine and so I say the following with

A Proviso that we shouldn’t go and fight unjust Wars like invading Iraq to spread Pride parades but I do think for a dispossessed coort of young men about 50% of whom now these days aren’t growing up with a father in their home the Army might provide them some kind of

Discipline structure mission statement patriotism sense of responsibility they can take home with them and start rebuilding our country with a renewed sense of belief in it great example of this uh Cambridge academic Rob Henderson has just put out an autobiography where he grew up in California he grew up in

The foster care system never knowing his mom or dad because his mom was a drug addict his foster family split up his dad moved away he grew up on drinking drugs and spent seven years in the armed forces the American Air Force and learned from how to make his bed in a

Proper way right way through the uh through the military all the skills required to make him a worldclass academic and I think that kind of opportunity paid forward to young boys in England might help the social Mobility Gap we’re seeing with white workingclass Lads all right Simon if

We’ve got millions of young people who are too lazy or factless to go and get a job and contribute to our economy should we not put them to work in the armed forces first of all how would you get if you can’t get them up to go and sign on

The do how are you going to get them to get up at 6:00 in the morning to do all the cleaning jobs and clean their boots and to make their beds I I get kind of Fed Up of everybody saying we’ve got this problem with people conscription

Let’s put them in the military why are the military becoming um the social workers of our society politics has failed the government or whichever government because it’s continual governments it’s not just one have failed to deal with the unemployment crisis there’s always been a problem with people claiming what

They’re really not entitled to but because they’re allowed to do it they will do it and um you know it’s so much my uh facilities management company we offered a job to a guy and unless we could employ him in the town that he lived in even though he only had a 20

Minute bus ride and this is a man who could drive wouldn’t catch the best to go to work to do a shift and he would have earned about 700 pound a week but then I’ll throw it back to you Conor I I’ll throw it back to you Connor on this

That blow there who by the way is the kind of person that I tend to despise um probably would have gone and done that job if he thought there was a chance that he was going to end up being conscripted into the military right well

That and also we know that I think it’s something like 60 odd perc of petty theft uh offenders that have over 11 convictions and this is from juvenile detention centers right through to adult prisons go on to reoffend now look we’ve got packed prisons at the moment mainly

Because we’ve got about 10% of that being foreign criminals we’ve got the think the highest number of foreign criminals in Western Europe here so sure kick them out but also to alleviate some of our prison population and at the moment rather than the wooler rehabilitation programs we seem to be

Putting men on maybe military service could actually provide a lot of these young lads who have fallen down the wrong path a bit more structure I do think of course the military shouldn’t be The Dumping Ground for people that can’t put their lives together but at the same time you can provide people

With the requisite conditions to cultivate some virtue and responsibility and maybe make them better than their family circumstances have made them you sh your head Patrick I’ve got to say if these guys have got petty criminal offenses leav or more for petty theft you’re then going to put them into

Um a military unit uh living in Barrack blocks where kit is left out routinely because you need easy access to it or you’ve just cleaned it you then have to go for a shower or nip over the naff Fe to get a drink or something and you come

Back and you stuff not there who are you going to look at you’re going to cause more disharmony in the military than is necessary and we’re looking at the military to mop up all of these people why are we offering them prisoners you know these people have to

Live close cheek by Jou they have to work and Trust the people next to them trust that they’re not going to steal their equipment which by the way if you lose it you have to pay for it and the military pay is so woefully inadequate where’s the money coming from to do all

Of these things about Rehabilitation are the military expected to rehabilitate all of these criminals get these people back into a work mode you can draw out individual things on individuals who have done something exceptional but they’re the exceptional to the rule not the rule and that we have to have the

Rule and these people deserve a better better Shake of the wh than they’ get if they had to deal with all of these people yeah and Conor I mean the the overarching issue here is this staggering figure that there are nearly 3 million under 25s who are neither

Employed or looking for a job so it’s not the fact that they are just unemployed it’s the fact that they don’t even want to get a job I find absolutely astonishing what is psychologically wrong with so many under 25s Connor oh lots of them are claiming mental health

Difficulties and obviously some of that is played up because some of them will be workshy but a lot of it’s because they’ve been put under really strange conditions like if you’ve grown up with a smartphone and you’ve had just a deluge of depressing content filtered through your childhood and you’ve got no

Other frame of reference and then you’ve just been through the pandemic and you’re a little bit emotionally soft and your household hasn’t got that much Integrity anyway cuz your mom and dad have split up no wonder you’re a bit more emotionally fraught and that’s why

I’m saying look and I I defer to Simon on on how the Mir barracks actually run cuz he served and God bless him for that but I am saying that some form of national service could be good for some people cuz it could take them out of the environment that is currently allowing

Them to fall into a cycle of unhealthy thinking patterns that’s keeping them out of the workforce they could come back from that and be a lot stronger and more emotionally resilient Simon look I I’m just again defer to you on this but did you serve with people who you know

If it might not have been for the military and then getting it at that time you might have gone off the rails or might have had a t starting life and then it did sort sort them out I mean is I mean there is that possibility isn’t

There well absolutely I’m not writing a discounting that it would be beneficial for some but if you’re going to release people from prison which has been suggested let them out early and then they’d have to go and do a year or two years form of national service but these

People aren’t frightened of punishment because they’ve already been punished they’ve already experienced what it means they’re not frighten so if they go in and do some deed whatever it may be whether it be violence drugs but don’t forget this is the other thing that people aren’t thinking about at all if

You take drugs and get caught taking drugs that is the end of your military career now if you then go for your medical having taken drugs there’s no way they can put you in in the first place so suggesting that they’re going to be forced into a situation having a

Three or four job offers and turning them down all right you can e easily forgo all of that by blotting your copy book straight away without any repercussions because nobody’s going to send you to jail for having taken drugs all right but you know you can get

Yourself out of being in the military by conscription for that okay both of you thank you very much top stuff that really really enjoyed it great look who do you agree with is Tory MP Richard Drax writes that young job Seekers not even seeking jobs are they at this point

Should be conscripted into the army for 2 years Steve onx says yes 100 100% it would do them the world of good they could learn skills anyone saying otherwise is condemning them to a life of doing nothing I would argue they’re condemning themselves but I take your point Steve Allan says the military

Deserves to be seen as a professional body so the suggestion it’s a Dumping Ground for layabouts is an affront Vicki says give them the choice serve the local community in some way or perhaps conscription one way or the other they need to earn their benefits or the doll

As it was called back in the day look your verdict in 73% of you agree that young job Seekers rejecting work should be conscripted for 2 years 27% of you say they shouldn’t