This Labour government has much to answer for: an overzealous pursuit of Multiculturalism, dangerously lax Immigration policies, vomit-inducing political correctness. Yet, credit must be given where credit is due. Recently revealed plans to develop the Cadet structure throughout the State school system are both eminently sensible and badly needed.
Children will undertake military drills, receive weapons training and more generally gain a better understanding of the Armed Forces role in Great Britain. It is hoped that these planned measures will inculcate the values of, inter alia, discipline, self-respect, and leadership. I guess it would be disingenuous to suggest there were not a recruitment element present as well, although to be fair the proposals have emanated from the "Civil and Military Relations Committee", a Parliamentary, not MOD, phenomenon.
The recently well-documented case of the off-duty, uniformed soldiers in Peterborough being verbally abused in the town centre shows that public perception of the Armed Forces has become inextricably tied to the Government's much lamented wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is utterly wrong; as if it needs to be said, these soldiers sign up to defend their countries with their lives, not to particular wars; and anything which can be done to enlighten such malign views should be.
Furthermore, Britain's spiralling anti-social and youth crime problems need, to put it crudely, all the solutions they can get; these measures should be part of that vanguard. It is vacuous to criticize the targeting of state schools for this scheme. Like it or loathe it, the fact is that the vast majority of future criminals will originate in those same schools.
If some of these disadvantaged and vulnerable people, who might otherwise descend into a life of transgression, find in these schemes -or indeed in joining the Armed Forces- the values and dignity which lead to good citizenship and worthwhile lives, well then all sides of the political spectrum should back them with vigour, for everyone in Britain's sake.
About Me
- Steve Wall
- I oscillate between being a student in the London School of Economics (LSE), supporting the Conservative Party and contemplating a political-correctness-induced-suicide-attempt.
3 comments:
" an overzealous pursuit of Multiculturalism, dangerously lax Immigration policies,"
Sounds like the Irish certainly benefit from it.
"Children will undertake military drills, receive weapons training and more generally gain a better understanding of the Armed Forces..."
somehow the youth policies of a mustached madman 60 years ago comes to mind...
Why is guiding vulnerable, disadvantaged people into the Armed Forces a good idea?
Sounds like you want to exploit their disadvantage so you can fill up the military with expendable people, not genuinely improve it by recruiting the privileged & well-educated.
Eerily Huxleyian.
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