War Games

The Defence Secretary and David Mundell, the Scottish Secretary, urge Nicola Sturgeon to find and punish the figure in her government who claimed school cadet forces provide 'cannon fodder.’

Julian Brazier, a Defence Minister, wrote to the Scottish Government urging them to help promote the setting up of cadet units in schools, particularly in deprived areas. But a senior SNP government source was quoted as stating: “There’s no way we’re having this cannon fodder scheme in schools. “It’s back to the days of General Wolfe and ‘No great mischief if they fall’”. This refers to Major General James Wolfe’s callous reaction to the death of Highlanders enlisted in Britain’s efforts to wrestle Canada from France during the 18th Century.

The cadet unit tradition goes back to 1860. Across the UK there were more than 260 units, mostly in England, but the Ministry of Defence wants to increase this to 500. The next phase of the £50 million Cadet Expansion Programme would focus on schools in “areas of high deprivation.”

The Educational Institute of Scotland, the country’s largest teaching union, said there would be a “fair degree of concern” among its members “if we were to go down this route.”

More than one in 10 new Army recruits are boy soldiers of just 16 years old, according to the 2014 figures. More than one in four of all new Army recruits are under 18 – too young to be sent into combat. But old enough to brain-wash and indoctrinate into the military discipline and ethos, just as members of the cadet force are.

The figures mean Britain stands alongside some of the world's most repressive regimes by recruiting children into the armed forces – among under 20 countries, including North Korea and Iran, that allow 16-year-olds to join up. They accused the MoD of deliberately targetting teenagers not old enough to vote in a bid to boost recruitment. According to British government policy under-18s in the British armed forces are prohibited from participation in armed conflict, but this policy can be overruled if there is a “genuine” military need or if it is otherwise impracticable to withdraw minors before deployment. Its systems for tracking personnel to ensure that under-18s are not deployed has reduced, but not entirely stopped, soldiers from being inadvertently deployed to operation theatres before they turn 18, and the UK has repeatedly exposed children to the risk of participation in hostilities.