New briefing on armed forces visits to schools in Wales

From Forces Watch:

There is new ForcesWatch briefing on armed forces visits to schools in Wales, which we've produced to try and inform Welsh Assembly Members of the key evidence of why they should accept the three recommendations in the Petitions Committee's report following their investigation on the issue, and highlighting a few other important points. We will also use the new briefing to inform the general public about the issue. The briefing includes some evidence that the Petitions Committee did not see, because it has come to light since its final meeting, which took place in 2013.

See a brief outline and link to download the pdf full briefing: HERE

or a link to just the PDF 273 kb HERE

ACTION: We're encouraging people to write concise emails/letters to their Welsh Assembly Members

contact details can be found at THIS LINK remember you have local and regional Assembly members

include the LINK to ForcesWatch's briefing, urging them to call on the Welsh Government to accept the Petition Committe's three recommendations (which, being very reasonable and well-evidenced, we hope the government have accepted, in their response to the report, which was to be sent to the Petitions Committee in July, but which won't be made public until a week before the plenary debate).  

The Welsh Assembly debate on the issue is likely to take place on 23 September.

Also please can you encourage all your contacts in Wales to do the same, and spread the word generally

The KEY POINTS:

This briefing supports the Petition Committee’s recommendations to the Welsh Government by presenting the key evidence that armed forces visits to secondary schools in Wales:

• are disproportionately high to schools in more disadvantaged areas;

• do not present a balanced view of the armed forces;

• and, are more numerous and more career-focused than visits by most other employers

(particularly the emergency services).

This briefing also presents evidence that:

• armed forces visits to schools are motivated by an agenda of engaging students in a long-term

recruitment process;

• quality and transparency of armed forces record-keeping makes a full study of the extent of visits

to schools problematic.

NOTE from blog poster: I did try to make the PDF into a Word document but the formatting would have taken ages ro sort out...  

Addition:
if you live in mid and west Wales [link to all mid & west Wales] your regional AMs are:

Rebecca.Evans@assembly.wales

Simon.Thomas@assembly.wales

Joyce.Watson@assembly.wales

William.Powell@assembly.wales

 
thn there will be a constituency member
Preseli Pembrokeshire: Paul.Davies@assembly.wales
Ceredigion: Elin.Jones@assembly.wales

Forces Watch at Area meeting

South Wales [Quakers] Area Meeting had a bilingual afternoon workshop given by Forces Watch
There is a lot to read but well worth it is you are interested in
a. the age of recruitment to the armed forces in the UK - with parental consent you can sign up from the age of 16 - the UK is the only European that allows sign up before the age of 18
b. and/or the recruitment that goes on in schools
c. and/or "The new tide of militarisation" [this links to a Quaker publication - England & Wales do have different education policies]] in the UK - in schools and general life.


The information from Forces Watch 4 links to pdf documents:
Link to briefing overview that they gave up
Link to Military activities in UK Schools & Colleges: what are the issues & what can you do
And an overview  of conscientious objection in the UK armed forces today


Those people who signed up at 16 were more likely to die on active service in Afghanistan than those who sign up later [is this because of their youth or the actual job they end up doing in the armed forces]. Although armed service personnel are not put on the front line until they are 18 there were some notable mistakes with regard to Afghanistan.


There are several issues to think about here and you might not be in agreement with all and some may feel they wish to see the total abolition of the armed forces.


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