00:00If you talk with this colleague, you'll know I was never a great note-taker, but all I've written here is no, it's totally mad.
00:06The Tories know it's totally mad as well. Jokes aside, the Tories are completely aware that that isn't a serious political policy that's going to be enacted.
00:13They know they've lost the election. It's an absolutely desperate, cynical ploy to appeal to a certain sort of very cool voter on a very niche issue,
00:22which they know that the other parties, especially parties that might end up in government making decisions, can't possibly say.
00:28To go back to my initial point, it's totally mad. What we need to be talking about, and what we actually need to be getting young people doing,
00:35is doing the sort of jobs we need in our economy. I said earlier, if you look at the hospitality sector, if you look at the health service,
00:42if you look across the economy, people are crying out for staff, for trained people.
00:46And actually, part of the problem is that young people doing qualifications, going through the sixth form, and then heading into university,
00:54and then heading into the workplace, are just not being done properly. Conservative ministers will go on television and demean and belittle young people,
01:01and their choices, and people who work in the public sector, and across the board, for a few votes this election,
01:06so that they don't end up with absolutely no enemies. Well, I think the public are more clever than that,
01:10and I think the public are going to deliver them the result they deserve, which is complete electoral annihilation.
01:25Well, when I was 18, I was studying and potentially going to be an officer with the British Navy,
01:41and the biggest mistake I made was listening to my parents, who said, don't do it, don't go into the armed forces,
01:49go to university and go straight into commerce. And in that short time that I had, preparing myself and studying to go into the Navy,
01:57as a very young man of 18 years of age, it was some of the happiest times of my life, and I learned so much from other young people.
02:04As the first ever Polish-born British member of parliament, I'd seen how national service in Poland has done tremendous things for young people,
02:13teach them new skills, teach them a love for their nation, and give them a new outlook in so many different ways.
02:21So I'm very much supportive of the opportunity for young people to have national service in this country.
02:29In reform, we believe in freedom, freedom of the individual. You might see these here. I joined the army because I wanted to join the army, and I stayed in the army.
02:49I enjoyed it. You don't go around shooting people and killing people. It's not like that. Most of the time it's on peace talks.
02:56Well, you should not be forced into that. If a volunteer comes to me, I can get 100% more than out of a forced man.
03:05You will never, ever enjoy it if you don't want to do it. It's not something I would profess to do for anyone who doesn't want the armed forces.
03:13It is a choice. If you want to be a doctor, if you want to be a nurse, if you want to be a spaceman, that's your choice, and you'll do well at it.
03:22But if somebody forces you into the armed forces and puts you through a drill, you're not going to like it. You're not going to enjoy it.
03:28You could have diarrhoea, and in some training programmes right now, we have had suicide, and they're training packages.
03:35That would be far worse if you had people forced. The days of that ended with the Navy putting vinyl on their heads and throwing them in the ships.
03:43That ended hundreds of years ago. I'm totally against it, and for the freedom of the individual, that's you, to make your choice. Enjoy life.
03:52Thank you very much.
04:23...from high by this government, who have made it harder for you to get a home, harder for you to get a job for life,
04:29actually made it harder, if you are 18, to even vote, by introducing mad and completely unnecessary voter ID rules,
04:36which by and large don't apply to older people and make it really tough for young people to prove that they can vote,
04:41harder for you to move around to work, so we've lost our freedom of movement, harder for you to study abroad.
04:49The list goes on, doesn't it? So the idea that they should be imposing national service on you,
04:55having absolutely failed to deliver any of the services that you deserve, is frankly outrageous.
05:02Thank you.
05:14No, I don't think you should be forced to go into national service. If you want to go, go.
05:23There are lots of opportunities that you can pick up skill-wise, but there are plenty of other options too, you can volunteer in.
05:39That's all I've got to say.
05:53No, I'm surprised to hear that I don't support national service either, and I have two reasons for this.
06:00And the first reason is you, and everything that you've actually come through in the last few years.
06:06I have two children of my own, one is nearly 15, one is 11, so I know personally how really difficult it was for you guys,
06:13with Covid, the lockdowns, and now with the onslaught of social media.
06:19The disruption that you've had to your education, to your social life, to the emotional development that you would have otherwise had.
06:26I honestly think our job right now is to nurture you, and empower you, and to lift you up.
06:32Not to penalise you, and certainly not to punish you.
06:35I think the idea of volunteering, the clue is in the name, that you should choose to do it,
06:41and what I find with all the other people I come into contact with, is that you often have your own passions and interests that do light you up.
06:48And it's on those areas where you will find the courage and the confidence to step forward and volunteer,
06:54and then you will earn some of those transferable skills and confidence.
06:58And I would highly recommend it, starting with something that you care about, or that lights you up and makes you excited.
07:04There's another really important reason, and that's what's actually going on with our armed forces.
07:10You know, they're not properly funded.
07:12The last time we had decent funding was under a Labour government.
07:15They're facing very difficult challenges.
07:18Cyber attacks, terrorist attacks, and we're involved in some really brutal conflict in Syria, in Iraq, in Somalia.
07:25We don't need some 18-year-old volunteers to go and fight in those brutal and complex scenarios.
07:32We need highly qualified, highly specialist military personnel.
07:37So the idea of national service doesn't solve any of those problems.
07:41Thank you.
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