Does The Army Know If It's Comming Or Going?

[jake-the-peg]

Why is the Army running an extensive recruitment campaign at the same time as making a load of redundencies?

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2013/may/army-boots

The campaign aims to dispel the misconception that the army is not hiring and hopes to bring 10,000 new recruits into the army over the coming year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22947436

Of the 4,480 Army personnel being made redundant, 3,765, or 84%, have volunteered for redundancy,

[sandyRoe]

There's always a need for fresh blood.

[factor-fiction]

Maybe it's for different roles, and those who are redundant could apply for roles if they wish. I suspect the roles that are going are the more expensive roles whereas new recruits will be much cheaper

[bednobs]

agreed they are probably recruiting for cannon fodder (or the modern day equivalent) and those people that chose redundancy often have quite a few years under their belts

[anotheoldgit]

sandyRoe

/// There's always a need for fresh blood. ///

What a horrible thing to say, but not unexpected coming from the likes of you.

Let's hope you never find yourself in need of their protection.

[sandyRoe]

AOG,
I don't know what you think that meant, but this is what I meant


http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/Fresh+Blood

[mikey4444]

this does seem a bit odd but I presume that the majority that are being made redundant are the older ones, not the super-fit teenagers !

But of course, we will lose an awful lot of experience when these older people go.

[ichkeria]

/// There's always a need for fresh blood. ///

"What a horrible thing to say, but not unexpected coming from the likes of you.

Let's hope you never find yourself in need of their protection. "

What's wrong with that?? The army needs fresh blood like all organisations. It may be a rather unfortunate way of putting it in this case, but it's still an apt way of putting it.
If I was sandy I'd be a bit offended by being referred to as "the likes of you" but the likes of me probably has no business being offended on behalf of the likes of him :-)

[mikey4444]

AOG...not sure why you had such a hissy fit about sandy's comments...have you taken your medicine today ?

It was obvious what he meant and it was quite a commonplace phrase to use.

[Booldawg]

cant imagine someone trained as a REME mechanic or someone from a Signals Unit would want to apply for a frontline infantry role. Can see why 84% have taken voluntary redundancy. They are highly skilled and probably want to take their chance in civvy street.

[Kathyan]

I'm glad that my husband got out last year. He had served for over 33 years. I feel sorry for the ones who are being forced to take redundancy. All that training, gone.

[ChillDoubt]

The Government's policy of relying on a large Reserve force is doomed to failure, as highlighted the other night on a Sky Special about it.

Should it go a little bit 'Pete Tong' elsewhere in the not too distant future we will not have the resources nor time to marshal the necessary.
There are certain theatres of operations where boots on the ground is the required measure and we will fall woefully short.

When the Septics express concerns about our military cuts, you know it's time to worry.

[anotheoldgit]

sandyRoe

May I apologise to you if I took your meaning of 'Fresh Blood' in the wrong way, but you must admit it was a poor choice of words in the circumstances, especially when so many of our armed forces have lost so much blood recently.

[jno]

I suppose it's the usual thing: get rid of the expensive people and hire cheap ones. I'm not sure cheapness ought to be a major concern in running an army, but we're all in this together.

[aelmpvw]

i think sandy deserves an apology for the comment 'the likes of you' as well AOG

[jno]

indded, there is nobody quite like sandyRoe and it is rude to suggest otherwise.

[jake-the-peg]

//There are certain theatres of operations where boots on the ground is the required measure and we will fall woefully short. //

Theatres of operation - that's a great euphemism for other people's countries isn't it?

The Army haven't protected *us* for over half a century - they protect British interests overseas and in the process stir up the sort of resentment that actually endangers us more here.

How many terrorist attrocities do the Swiss suffer?

The armed forces in Afghanistan do not make us one iota safer here in the UK if they did we wouldn't be pulling them out.

But all that's by the bye - I guess what's happening here is that they're doing what may businesses are doing still recruiting front line people and trying to cut the number of support staff that cost money but don't directly contribute to front line operations.

Making the Army more efficient

Mind you if you're kicked out onto civvy street it must be somewhat galling to see the ads

[Octavius]

Well they timed that announcement just right about teacher training then. An extra 3,765 teachers in two years time.......

[jno]

oh good, Octavius, I've always thought our primary schools weren't offering enough training in killing with your bare hands.