When is a volunteer not a volunteer?

The standard answer to that question used to have something to do with the press-gang – not that I actually remember the days when able-bodied men hid rather than be taken away to man His Majesty’s ships.

The answer nowadays seems to have a lot to do with Mandatory Work Activity or young people or even, dare I say it, libraries.

Define: volunteer
Noun, a person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task.

Verb, freely offer to do something.

There’s nothing in there about whether or not you get paid although in present-day usage it is generally the case that those who volunteer do so with the expectation that the freely means without expectation of monetary reward.

Anyway, the point of all this rambling is to point you at Phil Bradley's weblog which starts off by highlighting an article about Lewisham library volunteers on workfare scheme!!

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