Military 'Softening-Up' Pupils

Christine Grahame is a list MSP for the south of Scotland. In other words she didn't win election to Holyrood but attained her seat courtesy of her party, the SNP, whose members voted for her.

At times she has been controversial and at times I have supported her, but her latest outburst shows how out of touch she is with reality.

Six months ago she complained the army were recruiting in 'poor' areas. Now she is accusing the Ministry of Defence of a campaign of deception over visits to Scottish schools by representatives of the armed forces. She claims the MoD are 'softening up pupils' for recruitment when they reach the age of 16 and that they were visiting primary schools and nurseries and she wants the visits banned.

Time Ms Grahame did a fact-finding tour rather than sitting in her plush office reading documents she has received from local authorities. The police service, fire service and various other public services visit schools so why is Ms Grahame discriminating against the military? Don't our children deserve to meet people who dedicate their lives towards our protection or is it only the men in camouflage kit who they shouldn't be permitted to meet?

The senior Army commander in Scotland, Brigadier George Lowder, said the army "simply do not recruit in schools - primary or secondary".

"The army gets numerous informal and official requests from schools every year and gets no special treatment or access, but neither should it be excluded or discriminated against.

"This is not recruiting - far from it."

The army has careers officers who will visit a school if invited, in the same way as the police and other services visit schools to speak to young people who are of an age to make career choices. Any military personnel who visit schools, other than careers officers, ought to be welcomed by our political masters because children need to hear first hand how our country is protected and perhaps the older ones will become aware of how the military is regularly used as political pawns by our leaders.

A soldier speaking to a group of children and answering their questions can create confidence in our youngsters, because they see a person of discipline and knowledge interacting with them, the 'real deal', rather than reading information from a book or watching a video. Children will remember a visit and chat from a member of our armed forces far longer than a propaganda visit from a politician.

Maybe that's Ms Grahame's gripe.

Tweet

In Defence of Christine Grahame

Yesterday the SNP MSP Christine Grahame criticised the army for recruiting in deprived areas of Scotland. She also stated that Scots army recruits stood a one in nine chance of being badly wounded or coming home in a body bag.

The MoD is strongly denying her statistics. I disagree with them as much as I disagree with Ms Grahame's source. The MoD's numbers are over a period of 4 years don't include personnel who have been injured. They are wrong because many battalions have had more than one tour of duty in Afghanistan therefore of the MoD's numbers, 68,000 in 4 years, many will be the same personnel so therefore the individual risk is higher.

Despite the mounting death toll in Afghanistan and the increase in public hostility towards the war there, 1,000 Scots men and women joined the army between April and December this year. Support for our troops is strong in Scotland and I'm sure it is the same throughout the UK. Ms Grahame also mentioned the rise in numbers was possibly due to Scots having no other career choice open to them.

Her comments were allegedly in direct contrast to those of her party. Bruce Crawford, the Minister for Parliamentary Business, had earlier welcomed the rise in recruitment.

Labour called on Alex Salmond to condemn Ms Graham's comments saying that they were an insult to Britain's armed forces.

Really? How dare labour say the comments of a female MSP are insulting to the forces when they are the party which has been, in my opinion, criminally responsible for not providing our troops with the best equipment and have deployed our soldiers in two unjustified wars.

I know where Ms Grahame is coming from - she's a woman and possibly a mother. She's aware wars are not won with arms but with talk. Although her statistics may be askew, she has been courageous enough to speak out on this issue knowing she would be pilloried by male politicians. The SNP must be commended for permitting freedom of speech on these vital issues - the sign of a healthy political party.

In the past 10 years, through the Iraq war and now Afghanistan, labour women MSPs and MPs have deafened me with their silence. But then they voted for these unjustified wars didn't they?

Tweet