Militarisation in everyday life in the UK: a conference report
26/11/2013
ForcesWatch comment
![](https://www.forceswatch.net/wp-content/uploads/everyday_life-400x237.png)
Expand cadet force to encourage youngsters to join forces, defence minister suggests
21/11/2013
Britain’s cadet force could be expanded to encourage more youngsters to join the Armed Forces, a defence minister has suggested.
Telegraph
Why are education projects run by ex-services being prioritised?
21/11/2013
On 15 November 2013, the Department for Education announced "£4.8 million to projects led by ex-armed forces personnel to tackle underachievement by disengaged pupils".
ForcesWatch comment
ForcesWatch has a number of concerns about the military-led 'alternative provision' being developed in schools: who benefits? the armed forces certainly will; military-led 'alternative provision' targets young people seen to be 'failing' - precisely those who need more options and, if channelled into the forces, are most at risk in warfare; the policy is based on limited evidence and ideological assumptions; will there be space for ethical issues around conflict to be addressed?
Welsh bishops urge army to raise enlistment age to 18
08/11/2013
The Ministry of Defence has come under pressure from the Church in Wales and campaign group Child Soldiers International which is calling for an end to recruitment of under-18s to the Army
Wales Online
Bishops attack army on recruitment of minor while teen enlistment figures plummet
08/11/2013
Recruitment of 16-year-olds down 40% on previous year; former Armed Forces minister says “Time is right” to review recruitment age
Child Soldiers International
Open letter to Minister of State for the Armed Forces on armed forces recruitment age
08/11/2013
"We call for the minimum recruitment age to be returned to 18 years. This would be a fitting memorial to those thousands who, whether unlawfully recruited as minors during the First World War or recruited to fight in other conflicts, were exposed to death, injury and trauma that no child should ever experience."
Raising the age of recruitment: an open letter and a cautious welcome of the MoD review
08/11/2013
ForcesWatch are among 24 signatories of an open letter to Mark Francois MP, Minister of State for the Armed Forces which calls for an end to the recruitment of under-18s.. The signatories include the Church of Scotland, the Church in Wales, the Unitarian Church and Catholic, Baptist, Methodist and Quaker groups and Child Soldiers International. The letter notes that as the centenary of the outbreak of World War One approaches, the recruitment and deployment age of British soldiers is lower now than it was a century ago. The signatories call on the Ministry to raise the recruitment age to 18 as a “fitting memorial” to the thousands of young soldiers killed in World War One.
ForcesWatch comment
The Poppy
07/11/2013
David Gee, ForcesWatch
![](https://www.forceswatch.net/wp-content/uploads/future-soldiers.jpg)
In praise of the white poppy
05/11/2013
Jill Segger considers the growing appeal of the white poppy
Ekklesia
PTSD report finds veterans from disadvantaged backgrounds most at risk
05/11/2013
Forces Watch report calls for the minimum age of recruitment to be raised to 18 to avoid exposing the youngest soldiers to the most trauma
Wales Online