More media coverage of our petition to the Scottish Parliament
The Herald, 20 November 2016
SCOTLAND’S children and young people’s commissioner has said young people from deprived backgrounds should not be targeted by the military for recruitment and that visits by the Armed Forces to schools should be more tightly regulated, as MSPs prepare to consider proposed restrictions.
Tam Baillie also called for an outright ban on the recruitment of under 18s to the military, something which under existing Ministry of Defence (MoD) rules can only take place with parental consent and away from school grounds.
The MoD claims that military representatives only go into schools to give presentations, citizenship talks, hold meetings with staff, participate in career events, practice interviews and hold activities with the students, such as science and maths challenges, as well as indoor or outdoor exercises.
Holyrood’s public petitions committee could make a decision this Thursday on taking forward a proposal from military recruitment watchdog Forces Watch and Quakers in Scotland that would to see the Armed Forces subjected to more scrutiny when entering classrooms.
The moves began following a Sunday Herald investigation early this year which revealed Tory plans to create military cadet units in state schools in Scotland’s most deprived areas. The idea was attacked by a senior SNP source as an attempt to recruit vulnerable children as British Army ‘cannon fodder’.… Read more