Would a youth civic service fix Britains’s teenagers?

This is a terrible idea - a Daily-Mail-appealing idea (bring back conscription) dressed in Guardian clothes about aspiration horizons. And guess what?

It is actually, beneath it all, an excuse to continue imprisoning schoolchildren beyond school-leaving age. And wouldn't that work so well? It's so cheap and easy to get people in their late teens to do things that they don't want to do.

I think you should re-read your own label Lynne - are you really a Liberal?

By the way, if going in the services is so great at providing people with life skills, how come about 25% of them end up homeless?