Forces Watch

Oldham school planned with all ex-forces staff

adminFW — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:11:19 +0000

26/01/2012

BBC

The first UK school whose teachers have all served in the armed forces is actively recruiting prospective pupils with a view to opening in 2013.

Captain AK Burki is handing out leaflets in a busy Oldham shopping centre for the school he hopes one day to run as head teacher.

"All the teaching staff will be composed of ex-servicemen and women," he tells passing shoppers.

"They will be able to bring a breadth of experience that only those in the armed forces can," he explains to a mother, who is concerned about her daughter's education.

It is a world away from the front line in Afghanistan, where Captain Burki completed a tour of duty in 2010.

"The elements of the armed forces we really want to instil in the pupils are the core values of the Army," says Capt Burki. "Courage, discipline, respect for others, integrity, loyalty and selfless commitment."

Read the full article

The education system is not the place for militarised training of children

adminFW — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:13:57 +0000

10/01/2012

ForcesWatch

Michael Gove is again talking about extending the cadet forces within schools (see article), this time with the support from the Schools Commissioner (and a senior advisor to the Education Secretary), in comments about broadening the curriculum within state schools (see article).

Before being elected, the conservatives ‘pledged’ to involve armed forces personnel more in schools to serve as role models for young people (see article).

In 2011, the Education Secretary announced that expanding cadet forces would instil a ‘spirit of service’ in young people (see article)– a turn of phrase that in itself suggests ‘the military spirit’ and the associated values that go along with it.

Why is the military considered uniquely able to develop a ‘spirit of service’ or promote a disciplined approach? Why does the Schools Commissioner regard Cadet forces amongst a small handful of activities that are seen as broadening the curriculum and offering more opportunity with state schools? Who is being served by children in schools doing drill in the school playground or taking part in adventure activities? There would seem to be many other opportunities available for young people to experience a more direct connection with the concept of ‘service’, through developing extra-curricular activities that engage with the wider community or through activities that reply on team work and shared responsibility. If, however, it is actually service to the country that is being promoted, encouraging the widespread development of cadet forces feels more about serving the needs of the military and state than those of children. Educational establishments are not the place for this.

The rhetoric around increasing military influence within schools is one of instilling discipline and values but it is based on assumptions that are weak – not only that those who have served in the military are more equipped than teachers and other figures of influence to deal with youngsters but that military values, the ‘military spirit’ is one that is appropriate within the educational system. Do parents look to the military as embodying values they wish their children to absorb? Do parents want their children to handle weapons and take part in militarised training? Those families and youngster who wish to be part of cadets are able to join a cadet force in a local town as they exist the length and breadth of the country and is already the largest youth organisation in the UK.

The foundation of the policy is actually located elsewhere. The 2008 report National Recognition of our Armed Forces included increasing and strengthening cadets forces in its recommendations to ‘encourage greater understanding and appreciated of the Armed Forces by the British public’. The MOD 2007 report Engagement with UK Schools report is explicit about it the value to the armed forces of activities in schools including to ‘provide positive information to influence future opinion formers, and to enable recruiters to access the school environments.’

The CCF, as well as other forms of military engagement with schools, are funded by the MOD. It is an investment for the future. Recruiting young people as supporters of the armed forces and, in the longer term, softening some of them up for actual recruitment into the services.

The military have extensive programme of engaging with children in schools already. They are keen to exploit their impressionability and activities within schools allows them access to young peoples minds within a system that children and parents can have little influence over. Such engagement focuses on the immediate benefits to the young person and tends to glamorise warfare and a life in the forces, rather than honestly dealing with the risks and challenges that will be faced, the ethical issues and the long-term effects of being involved in conflict.

Schools are already well equipped to provide experiences that foster responsibility and a disciplined approach, team building, leadership. With so much conflict in the world, surely the education system is the place to foster initiatives that counter conflict and violence and build peace, rather than promoting the old ‘traditional’ approaches to what young people ‘need’ that are designed to feed into ‘traditional’ ways of solving conflict, through military action rather than a more creative and critically aware response.

Gove backs cadet forces in schools

adminFW — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:25:25 +0000

09/01/2012

Press Association

Military-style cadet forces could be introduced to all secondary schools in a Government bid to boost standards and discipline.

Education Secretary Michael Gove told the Sunday Express he had met a cadet at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and learned of the advantages the groups can bring.

Following the conversation, Mr Gove has told Children's Minister Sarah Teather to work with Defence Minister Nick Harvey on the project.

Schools Commissioner Dr Elizabeth Sidwell also backed the idea of the Combined Cadet Force (CCF) in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph.

Mr Gove told the Sunday Express: "I met this amazing guy, a 17-year-old an Afro-Caribbean lad, who joined the cadet force and told me how it had transformed his life.

"He was the perfect advertisement for what it can do.

"I've tasked the Children's Minister to work with Nick Harvey at the Ministry of Defence to bring this to all schools and they are very keen to roll it out."

The CCF includes wings linked to the army, Royal Air Force and navy and is made up of youngsters aged 13 to 18.

It uses military orientated training to build self-reliance, resourcefulness, endurance and a sense of service to the community.

There are CCF units in more 200 independent schools and around 60 state schools but Dr Sidwell said they are "not the province of the middle classes, it's the province of every child".

Read the article

Military cadet forces in every school, says schools commissioner

adminFW — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:22:36 +0000

08/01/2012

The Telegraph

All secondary schools should have a military cadet force in the drive to raise standards, according to a senior Government education official.

......

“The all-round curriculum that children need, CCF, debating – that’s not the province of the middle classes, it’s the province of every child.”

The CCF was created in 1948 but its antecedents date back to 1859 when public schools and universities were asked to form volunteer corps.

Today, more than 200 independent schools but only around 60 state schools run CCF units, according to the Ministry of Defence, which sponsors the organisation. Members learn drill and are trained to fire weapons.

In 2008, the then-prime minister Gordon Brown backed a government-commissioned report which said more state schools should sign up to CCF. Although there has been no major rise, it is increasingly offered in academies.

Read the article

International Standards on Conscientious Objection to Military Service

adminFW — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:39:18 +0000

November 2011

Published by the Quaker United Nations Office in November 2011, this short booklet reflects recent changes in international law and practice that indicates that recognition of conscientious objection to military service as a human right is now stronger than ever. The publication in available in English, French or Spanish.

Read the publication

See more about conscientious objection on the Quaker UN office website

The Kill Factor

adminFW — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 20:15:22 +0000

June 2011

These BBC radio programmes explore the effect of killing on people in the military, how many are unable to kill and others live with the effects of having killed for the rest of their lives.

Listen to the programmes

Read 'How soldiers deal with the job of killing'

Manual of Service Law

adminFW — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 12:13:44 +0000

January 2011

Manual of Service Law (MSL) Version 2.0 January 2011
This manual replaced, with effect from 31 October 2009, the Manual of Naval Law, the Manual of Military Law and the Manual of Air Force Law. It is a guide to the legislation and subordinate legislation which was introduced in the Armed Forces Act 2006.

Volume 1:
This volume covers the Service discipline system generally and includes a wide range of matters such as jurisdiction, arrest, custody, investigations, charging and mode of trial, summary hearing, review and appeal.

Volume 2:
This volume covers matters pertaining to the Service Courts including the Court Martial, the Service Civilian Court and the Summary Appeal Court. It is intended to provide guidance to legal advisers and the staff of the Military Court Service, who administer proceedings before these Courts.

Volume 3:
Volume 3 contains the Act and the underpinning secondary legislation, as well as other allied legislation and source material, which will be useful to legal professionals.

View the manual

The Armed Forces (Terms of Service) (Amendment) Regulations 2011

adminFW — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:19:37 +0000

June 2011

New legislation (from 22 July 2011) which grants under 18s the right to leave after a 'cooling off' period. Prior to this, discharge of 'unhappy minors' was at the discretion of the commanding officer.

This right is additional to an individual's Discharge As Of Right (DAOR) between the 2nd and 6th month of starting service.

Under 18s in all branches of the forces may now give 3 months' notice to leave (i.e. leave the regular service and join the Reserves) if they give notice in writing to their commanding officer any time before their 18th birthday. By mutual consent the 3 months' notice may be reduced.

The recruit can change their mind about leaving if they do so within the notice period and they can still give notice later on.

Additionally, the legislation also allows adults the possibility of having their 12 month notice period reduced by up to 6 months as long as it is done within one month of notice being given. This is at the discretion of the commanding officer.

read the legislation

for more info on terms of service

Surface-to-air missiles for Olympics

adminFW — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:40:09 +0000

14/11/2011

British Forces News

Surface-to-air missiles could be used to protect the skies over London during the Olympics, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said today as he insisted "all necessary measures" will be taken to ensure security.

Mr Hammond told the Commons "appropriate ground to air defences" could be in place if that was recommended by the military.

His comments came as it was reported that forces personnel could have to provide far more Olympic security than expected.

It has been widely reported that Games organisers have massively underestimated the number of security guards required, and thousands of troops may have to fill the gap.

The MOD says no formal request has been received, but talks are underway.

The Home Office, which is responsible for Olympic security, says no decisions have been made.

Read the article

The red poppy: a compromised symbol?

adminFW — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:58:19 +0000

12/11/2011

Ekklesia

Jill Segger

To be a child in the 50s and 60s was to be familiar with the sight of men, still young, who had been lamed or disfigured by war. Many more - my father among them - carried wounds in their psyches which were impediments to their becoming the husbands and fathers they would have wished to be.

My father frequently said “ war makes men mad” and from both him and my grandfather, who had, at least physically, survived the Somme, I absorbed the concept that those who had not “been there” could easily be led into falsity when speaking or writing of war and remembrance.

Combined with a religious and cultural unease over 'outward forms', this has given me a lifelong disquiet about Remembrance Day, and, in recent years, of its red poppy symbol. Even in childhood, I shrank from the marches, flag-bearing and official solemnity. I have never doubted the need to 'remember' but I am grateful to have been taught by the then unfashionable and unpopular witness of my parents that it was our calling to remember the dead of both sides and all the victims of war who never wore uniforms or bore arms.

The act of remembrance is bound to change – there are now none left alive who have personal memories of the 1914-18 war and the numbers who directly experienced combat in the second war are rapidly diminishing. The dominant signifier is now the conflict in Afghanistan and once again, we see maimed young men in our streets and places of work. There is a new emotional charge to the act of remembrance – it could be no other way – but the reality and horror of modern warfare and the intensity of loss, particularly in an age where 24/7 communication brings their raw quality to every TV screen and smart-phone, may easily destabilise judgement. Remembering has been none too subtly coupled with a requirement to be entirely uncritical of the armed forces and all that they are required to do – an attitude which is quick to take offence at even the suggestion of a more nuanced approach to the complex issue of military action, to its alternatives, and to the standing of those who participate in it.

David Cameron, who has indignantly refuted the idea that the red poppy could be a political symbol
– a stance which would elicit a contemptuous response from any citizen of Northern Ireland - made this pronouncement on Armistice Day: “If you ask yourself what are the things that are still absolutely great, first class, best in the world, about this country, you would put our armed forces – our Army, the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force – right up there.” Only the most narrow definition of 'political' could exclude the political significance of this braggart nationalism.

This shift of emphasis from remembrance to an emphasis on support of our armed forces has compromised the red poppy. The pointless and frankly xenophobic spat over poppies on the shirts of the English football team sums up the bias and sentimentality which it has suited the government to encourage. Frank Lampard says that if the team appeared without poppies, they would be “letting them (the armed forces) down”. Tory MP Chris Heaton-Harris described the red poppy as a symbol of “our support for those serving the country at this time.”

The growing compulsion to wear a red poppy and to acquiesce in the remodelling of its purpose has diverted our attention from the more enduring and demanding aspects of remembering the destruction, personal, collective and environmental, which is the outcome of military action. My colleague Simon Barrow has highlighted this in his blog: Not just waving poppies, but drowning thought (http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/15705)

The best support we can offer to the indisputably courageous men and women of our armed forces, is to seek means of keeping them out of the way of bullets and IEDs. Nation building, conflict resolution and peacemaking are the tools of this alternative way and if a fraction of the resources expended on war and its machinery were to be diverted to these ends, we would perhaps come nearer to fulfilling the hopes of the millions who have died.

A banner displayed at the peace meditation which took place at the Occupy camp at St Paul's today (12 Nov) points us past both the failure of politics and its current tendency to wrap itself in regimental colours: “ Mourn the dead. Heal the wounded. End the wars.” Can we reclaim the red poppy as a symbol of that vision?

Read the original article