Excellent post Alice.

I voted yes!

If you too lazy to find a job within a year or two of leaving school then yes you should do the service, but not if you have a job and are interested in a career.

So I think what many of us are saying (I'm surprised at the results of this poll to be honest!) is that for those kids who want to carry on in further education, they can do so, for those who go from school into a job/apprenticship etc, they can do so, but for those who leave school and go straight on benefits they can't. In fact maybe they shouldn't be able to get benefits at all once they leave school and have to go into the 'National Training Scheme'?
In this country we are now on our 3rd generation of people who have never worked which is horrifying, thats 3 generations of people who have never contributed to this country but have taken. That needs to be stopped.
Becky

Yep, thats what i think, from school to either further education that you HAVE to do, not just an excuse to be lazy, or apprenticeship or if neither of those National Service, for both sexes too....

When I voted I presumed a National Service meant a NS for everyone - as per other countries.
Yes NS can be deferred until you finish education, but once that is done, you go in for your year, or two years, whatever the case may be.
Everybody - not just the problem element.
I actually think discriminating in that fashion could lead to more bleating from people who think they are special cases. People will bleat anyway, but if everyone has to do it, there's no favouritism.

Well it had to start somewhere, and the first generation of feckless useless parents must have had parents who did national service and it obviously failed to work in their case.
Why can't those that fail in their responsibilities be held accountable?

Ok well the original post was about National service, and if we wait until they claim benefit before putting them into your training course half of them will have kids etc. and will be excused. Perhaps they need to learn much earlier in life that their are alternatives and that they can have aspirations.

I totally agree but who is going to show them this, a lot of their parents are already in this system and cant see the wood for the trees. If all you see is poverty, unemployment and crime then that becomes your world. At least with compulsory NS they get a chance to see what they could acheive if they got out of bed before noon.
For the young people who have been brought up well and whos parents did a good job, I dont think it is too much to defer their careers for a year and experience something
different.

Maybe we could start to recognise a lot earlier in their lives that they need a little (ok a lot) more motivation to get out of their comfort zone and give them something to aspire to.