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Alex Cunningham MP: Stop armed forces recruiting children
21/05/2013 Central Lobby

Ahead of his debate today, Labour MP Alex Cunningham argues that the UK’s "routine" practice of recruiting 16 year olds into the armed forces has to stop.

recruitment age
Army launch recruitment drive for 10,000 new young soldiers ahead of redundancies
20/05/2013 Telegraph

The Army has launched a campaign to sign up 10,000 new recruits just weeks before thousands of experienced soldiers who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan will lose their jobs.

recruitment
Last of the boy soldiers? Bid to end centuries of tradition by banning the Army from recruiting under-18s
19/05/2013 Mail on Sunday

Sir Nick Harvey describes policy is 'increasingly anachronistic'; Believes 16 and 17-year-olds more likely to die or be seriously wounded; Also claims millions of pounds is wasted due to high drop-out rates

recruitment age
The price of pacifism: Refusing to go to war is finally being recognised as a brave act
18/05/2013 Independent

From the Second World War refusenik to the 19-year-old Israeli, Holly Williams talks to five people who risked shame and suffering to take a stand as conscientious objector.

conscientious objection
Conscientious objector Joe Glenton on being jailed for refusing to fight
15/05/2013 Metro

Joe Glenton, a former soldier in the British army, has served his country and risked his life in Afghanistan. He’s also been called a coward. The reason? After returning to Britain after his first tour of Afghanistan, he became a conscientious objector (CO) and refused to go back.

conscientious objection
Millions 'wasted' on junior army recuits, report claims
23/04/2013 The Telegraph

Tens of millions of pounds is wasted on training young soldiers for roles that could be filled more cost effectively by adults, a report has found.

recruitment age
Army recruitment at 16 'should stop'
23/04/2013 BBC

The "outdated" practice of recruiting 16-year-olds into the Army is wasting up to £94m a year and should stop, two human rights groups have said.

recruitment age
Recruiting British soldiers at 16 isn't just morally wrong. It's bad economics
23/04/2013 Open Democracy

The Ministry of Defence wastes £94 million every year training minors for army roles which could be filled more cost-effectively by adult recruits, says a new report launched today by human rights groups Child Soldiers International and ForcesWatch.

recruitment age
Nuclear Weapons and Militarisation in the UK
28/03/2013 ForcesWatch

A society has to be militarised for a government to justify the development and maintenance of nuclear weapons to its citizens; militarisation creates a culture of acceptance. It popularises military euphemisms such as ‘Defence’, ‘Security’, and – particularly relevant to nuclear weapons – ‘deterrent’, and makes it hard to for those challenging these to be seen as credible.

military in society
Combat soldiers more likely to commit violent crimes: study
15/03/2013 Reuters

British soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan - particularly young men and those who have seen active combat - are more likely to commit violent crimes than their civilian counterparts, according to research published on Friday.

recruitment age, risks

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Young people and militarism
01/09/2011 A ForcesWatch report

In July ForcesWatch launched the Military Out of Schools campaign. Speakers Oskar Castro, a US activist in countering military recruitment, and Ben Griffin, ex-forces and the founder of fledgling Veterans for Peace UK, discussed how young people are militarised and what can be done about it.

military in schools colleges
Watching, and challenging, the armed forces
01/05/2010 Peace News

This article looks at the challenges posed by new military recruitment strategies including the “army showroom” concept and the “Start Thinking Soldier” internet and TV advertising campaign – both “initiatives which utilise the language and tools of computer games and simulation, which young people immediately relate to, and desire.”

From hero to zero
04/04/2010 Sunday Times
Michael Clohessy returned from Iraq with a distinguished war record — and ended up in prison. Our jails are swollen with former soldiers. Why can’t they stay out of trouble?
risks
One in 10 Army recruits 'bullied and intimidated'
16/11/2008 The Independent

A decade after Deepcut, MoD reports reveal failure to tackle problem affecting hundreds of trainees.

risks
Armed Forces personnel to go into schools, Conservatives pledge
28/09/2008 Telegraph

Service men and women will go into schools to mentor young tearaways, while troops will receive free teacher training and university tuition, the Conservatives will pledge. 

cadets
Cadet school
01/06/2008 Peace News

Controversial plans to radically expand military cadet corps in English state secondary schools are being pushed forward by Ed Balls, the Children’s Secretary, apparently backed by No 10. The plans were the idea of Quentin Davies, a Labour MP who defected from the Tories last year, and come on the back of a government-commissioned review of “civil and military relations”.

cadets
Brown backs army cadet corps plan for schools
08/04/2008 The Guardian

Controversial plans for pupils in comprehensive schools to sign up for military drills and weapons training are being backed by Gordon Brown in an attempt to improve the relationship between the public and the armed forces.

cadets
Britain's child army
07/02/2007 New Statesman

“Stricken by Iraq and low morale, the British army is on a desperate recruitment drive. Its new targets? Poorly educated teenagers and young schoolchildren.” This article looks at new recruitment techniques such as the Camoflage scheme, which includes a magazine and website designed for those as young as 13, MoD school presentation teams and various forms of ‘outreach’. “Our new model is about raising awareness, and that takes a ten-year span. It starts with a seven-year-old boy seeing a parachutist at an air show and thinking, 'That looks great.' From then the army is trying to build interest by drip, drip, drip."

recruitment age
The BBC: Poppies and presenters
10/11/2006 BBC

An editor at the BBC explains how they have no policy that presenters have to wear a poppy but that they do give 'guidance' on wearing them,

military in society, remembrance
At least 1,000 UK soldiers desert
28/05/2006 BBC

More than 1,000 members of the British military have deserted since the start of the Iraq war, the BBC has learned.

absense without leave, conscientious objection