Article One

COMMITTEE for
COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT

Who We Are

Articles

Articles: Military Recruiting: Personnel Crunch

Army plays down drop of 30% in recruits signing up

HAMISH MACDONNELL, Scotsman

October 1, 2007

THE army insisted yesterday there was no recruitment crisis north of
the Border despite the publication of figures showing a 30 per cent
drop in the number of new soldiers from Scotland in the past five years.

A total of 2,346 Scottish recruits joined the army in 2002-3 in the
lead up to the Iraq war. By 2006-7, that had dropped to 1,617 - a
fall of 31 per cent.

Critics, military experts and former army officers blamed the poor
recruitment statistics on low army pay, more young people in higher
education, the Iraq war, an ageing population and rising criminality
among the young.

Alex Salmond, the First Minister, said that the decision to
amalgamate Scotland's historic regiments into one unit was largely to
blame, because it stripped regional loyalty and identity from the
army in Scotland.

Historian Trevor Royle said: "Scotland is gradually becoming a place
of more older people and fewer younger people. Education also plays a role.

"The latest figures show that at least 40 per cent of the army's
target group are in tertiary education of one type or another. Pay is
also an issue. We don't pay our private soldiers enough and then
there is the long shadow cast by Iraq and Afghanistan. "

Brigadier Alan Alstead, former army commander, said: "You can drive a
bus in Edinburgh for £24,000 average pay, and £13,500 for driving an
armoured personnel carrier in Iraq where you are not going to see
your wife or girlfriend for six months and get shot at every day and
the likelihood perhaps of being killed. It doesn't stack up."

This archive consists of a topically organized selection of articles culled by members of the Counter-Recruitment List Serve from printed publications and web sites. The archive is not complete. We have chosen material relevant to the work of Eugene, Oregon’s Committee for Countering Military Recruitment that we think may be of use to others individuals and groups with similar goals.

Because our web site is public, personal comments about the articles and (frequent) corrections of reporters’ errors are also not included. If an article interests you, we encourage you to return to the Counter-Recruitment List Serve and put the article’s headline into the search line, which should bring up (often wise and useful) commentary and corrections. If you do not belong to the List Serve, it can be found at counter-recruitment@yahoogroups.com

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the articles on this site are posted without profit to those who have expressed prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposed.