There’s something intriguing about the government’s National Service proposal. I’m not sure about the policy itself, but I like what it’s getting at. The striving for a ‘shared sense of purpose’ that Sunak characterises it as embodying, is something that anybody concerned about social atomisation and division surely supports? He makes the point in a recent interview that volunteering is one thing but his scheme is more about finding ‘something that the whole country, a whole generation, does together’. Whatever the pros and cons of the policy itself, encouraging the young to commit to something bigger than themselves is a vital project that we should all get behind. With their phones and their identity politics, we desperately need to get them out of themselves.
The Prime Minister talks about a ‘culture of service’ around which a coherent identity might be built. That sense of a national mission or vision, a commitment to public service, has been missing since … Well, it’s hard to think of anything beyond the second world war and the creation of the welfare state. There is an absence of support for voluntarism in contemporary Britain. If the Church of England is anything to go by, the dearth of volunteers is only compounded by form-filling, safety first, politically correct officialdom. But there is also also an aversion to any notion of service at all - and an outright hostility to work, industriousness, and playing your part in society.
Douglas Murray asks why we pathologise those who work hard as having a ‘work addiction’? While there is something to be said for work/life balance, surely work is good for us and those around us? For Annabel Denham, writing in the Telegraph, ‘Britain’s young appear to have moved away from the long-standing belief that structured employment can be good for wellbeing, to one where it is a hindrance to health to be avoided.’ She cites a number of explanations including the housing crisis, education and training failings and the disincentive affects of a high tax burden. And cultural drivers from the expansion of notions of disability and mental health problems, and a growing sense of entitlement amongst the young. To the experience of dependency with over half of households receiving more in benefits than they pay in taxes. And lockdown, working from home and furlough giving people permission psychologically, if not literally, to clock out of work altogether.
We hear of entire towns that seem to have fallen into a spiral of decline, dependency and depression. ‘In Blackpool, you see the worst of Britain’s welfare crisis’ says Max Jeffery, with more than a quarter of its citizens on out-of-work benefits. In the other seaside town of Hastings, 15% are out of work because of long term sickness - the highest rate in the country. Around 1 in 10 working age residents are claiming Personal Independence Payment (PIP) for an illness, disability or mental health condition. The depression is more than economic in these forgotten coastal towns and in the neglected North of England too, in places like Liverpool and Middlesborough. And the sickness seems to be spreading.
According to Kate Andrews, economics editor for The Spectator, a record 5.6 million of us are claiming out-of-work benefits. And yet there are more than 900,000 positions looking to be filled. But Andrews is sceptical that young people are just ‘workshy’. Workforce participation was at its highest ever at 79.5% just before we went into lockdown. ‘Has the national character changed so much in so short a time?’ she asks. And yet since then, a majority of the long term sick are suffering with depression, bad nerves or anxiety. As many as 4 out of 5 are assessed as unable to work. So what is going on? A recent Spectator Editorial lays the blame on the decision to lockdown:
Much of the misery we see around us at present is rooted in decisions taken around Easter 2020. The lost years of education, the stagnant economy, the welfare crisis …
‘Furlough was a powerful drug’ says editor, Fraser Nelson. It was ‘initially designed for three months. It ended up being used on and off for a year and a half, with £70 billion given to 11.7 million people.’ And since then ‘the list of things that the public expect protection from has grown’. We have, as a consequence, grown more dependent than ever before. While that’s not all the fault of furlough - indeed it was a trend that predated the pandemic, argues Nelson, in contrast with his colleague Andrews - young and old alike appear to have lost the habit of going to work. This is a ‘calamity’, as Nelson says, for national productivity - but it’s a disaster for individuals, families and communities too.
While our industrial base might be long gone, and our willingness to do an honest days work may be flagging, our flair for manufacturing our own maladies is unrivalled. The creation of a national reserve of volunteers, if it were ever to happen, isn’t going to solve what are long standing cultural problems made worse by more recent policy blunders. Far less will it pull us altogether in a spirit of national renewal. But there is something to be said for rolling our sleeves up and having a go, and for committing ourselves to collective pursuits. Whether that be doing our bit for the public good, filling one of those vacancies in the labour market, or simply resisting the urge to sink into the state sponsored misery of victimhood and dependency. These days just having a bit of self respect can feel like a full time job. But clocking in is its own reward.
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