Education UCL student union bans military

original page: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23450359-details/Students+ban+the+military/article.do

I still cant believe this.....

 

I wish student unions would just ****ing help their students, rather than try to save the world on every possible level. ******s.

I don't neccessarily agree with the war in Iraq, but I respect the people who are ordered to go out there and the people who make sure my ass is safe here at home (unless they are ******s).

 

Wow. Student unions actually do stuff? Belfast's one is so completely useless...

 

Like most unions these days they seem to be in a desperate to look relevant.

 

Come on, students world-wide used to be at the forefront of every protest against abuse of power, in the days when further education was for the more intelligent members of the population. Who started the Vietnam War protests? And got shot dead by the paramilitary followers of those abusers of power? Who protested in Tiananmen Square? Or Iran, South Africa, Chile, et al?

A government's best weapon is public apathy. A public thankful that some other jerk is getting shot at so they can carry on as usual. A small gesture at UCL, but beats whining on the internet or just not caring a damn why the jerk is out there.

 

+1

 

But targetting the military is seriously misguided. The armed forces are in Iraq and Afghanistan because they have been ordered there by the government.

Blaming the armed forces for Iraq is like blaming your bin men for the Council Tax.

If they want to ban anyone, the Students' Union should ban government ministers.

 

hear hear.

They are just doing a job

 

Exactly. This is just another example of an SU trying to be political and contraversial, but getting it totally, utterly wrong.

 

Only obeying orders...

So you see nothing wrong in recruiting cannon fodder?

 

People make a choice to join the forces these people aren't being drafted.

A lot of the people who are cannon fodder would probably doing a crummy job or unemployed if they weren't in the army.
I disagree with the sexing up of the army it should be made clear that this isn't the bb's with guns, but hey if you can't research your options before signing on well thats your own fault.

 

Interesting tidbit:

Not that I'm opposed to that, but if the students really cared about this sort of thing then perhaps they should have voted on something that actually made a difference.

 

Doesn't mean the UCL has to collude with false advertising.

No reason to send them to shoot some Arabs, though. There are more useful community services that they could be employed in.

We have false advertising laws because the consumer can't be an expert on everything. Should extend to army recruitment:

I bet a lot of soldiers signed up with that noble intent in mind. Except that it's not quite why they are in Afghanistan and Iraq, is it now?

 

I think this is another matter of personal responsibility, the forces makes a fine carer choice for many people its not bad money and you can come out of uni with little debt or in the case of the layabouts they have a job.
If people want to know and make the choice to sign up great its up to them the uni should allow people to make their own choices and allow them to have all the facts whether they personally agree or not. Should we prevent the big oil firms from putting up stands at uni's, these can be very dangerous jobs. As i said there is a lot of over hyping of the forces but its not as if any one with an ounce of sense doesn't know that they'll probably be being shot at with in a few months. This is a political stab nothing to do with colluding with false advertising.

 

Nexxo wins this thread, although when I originally read the title I thought they were banning everyone in the military from being at UCL for any reason. I don't see any problem with them banning the military from setting up recruitment stalls. As Nexxo said, many soldiers signed up because of a line they were fed by a military recruitment stand, then found they were fighting wars with dubious intentions.

 

bah changed my mind, i was just fanning the flames of a potential fire


banning a stand at a freshers fair really isn't a big deal.

 

If the unions run the freshers fairs then it's perfectly within their rights not to invite the military. They've perhaps being a little childish and are obviously 5 years late, but whatever - it's their fresher fair, so they can do whatever they want. Students always were a bunch of whiney angry lefties afterall.

Personally I'm strongly considering OTC when I go to uni, but let's face it, most folk who are interested in stuff like the OTC are going to know about it anyway. They won't need some stall with a squadie who's just about smart enough to butter some toast to tell them about it.

 

Not setting up a stall - fine.
Scolding military personnel - not fine.

 

I'm pretty sure you'll find you mean "scolding" m'laddo, in case you're under the mistaken impression that student unions are throwing boiling liquids at members of our military.

 

My feelings about this are mixed. Although i don't think that banning them is the right thing to do i also think that its a little innapropriate having military stalls at a freshers fair. However its the way that they talk about the subject, blaming the soldiers instead of the people that sent them where they are now...

As the article says there is a growing hate of soldiers who've been to iraq, and i dont see why. Admittedly we shouldnt fall on our knees to worship them and thank them, but at least give them the respect they deserve for doing a job like that.