Half of 17-35 year-olds not fit enough to pass initial Army selection, chief of defence staff reveal

[EgyptianAmerican]

8

Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir Nick Carter giving evidence to the House of Commons Defence Committee Credit: PA

• Izzy Lyons

4 December 2018 • 7:39pm

Half of the UK population are now so unhealthy they are unable to pass initial Army selection, the chief of defence staff has said.

Giving evidence to MPs at the Commons Defence Committee, General Sir Nick Carter said Army recruiters are facing “a very difficult market” in recruiting people healthy enough to enlist.

His comments come after the committee was told in October that the Army currently has 77,000 fully trained troops compared with a target of 82,500.

Gen Carter, who took up the post of chief of the defence staff six months ago, told the committee that “50 per cent of 17-35 year olds are not healthy enough to get through the selection process.”

He also admitted that the British Army shares a large part of the blame for its recruitment failings alongside outsourcing giant Capita and that some "appalling lessons" have been learned.

Capita were controversially awarded the contract for Army recruitment in 2012. In October this year, the Ministry of Defence disclosed that Capita managed to bring in fewer than one in 10 of the recruits needed for 2018-19 in the first quarter of the year.

Asked by Conservative former defence minister Mark Francois whether the recruitment and manning shortfalls are entirely the fault of Capita, Gen Carter said they are not.
View attachment 524638

"From its inception in 2012, there is no doubt that the Army shares a large part of the blame as well, and it has taken a while to get it back on track," Gen Carter told the committee.


"To be clear, Capita's bid when they competed for this contract was ambitious and I think it was overly ambitious and that would be their fault”, he added.

Gen Carter also conceded three or four "big errors" were made from the side of the military in the process, including making the contract too complicated and outsourcing the notion of a recruiting sergeant.

He said: "If someone is making a decision to join the Army, or for that matter the other two services (the RAF and Royal Navy), they need to see a role model in the process at the front door and that was outsourced.

"The second thing that was outsourced, which was definitely a mistake, was the ability to nurture candidates through the process from application to enlistment - and that was something that could not be handled by an anonymous call centre - which was the plan."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...unhealthy-unable-pass-initial-army-selection/

Why would the UK army need to increase its military force? Is it planning on deploying even more troops to the Baltic front also?

 

[Desert Fox]

This is an issue among all the first world countries and the culprits are the fast food chains pumping out all these processed food.

Fast food joints are only half the problem.

The other problem is consumerism. People themselves just don't know when to stop consuming all of the trash placed before them. It's because people haven't learned self restraint. And self restraint can only be learned through hardship which toughens the spirit. Consumer culture is bourgeois culture because it is born from excess, from sheltered lifestyle where the hardest thing one will ever do is deciding which coffee flavor to choose for the day.

So why stay fit? What's the need to even try? To join the military? But why risk your life fighting some dumb war in a far off country for a cause you're not even sure about when you can enjoy your video games, fish and chips and God knows what else the consumer society caters to your materialistic demands?

@Nilgiri @django @Psychic @jamahir @Metanoia

 

[Nilgiri]

where the hardest thing one will ever do is deciding which coffee flavor to choose for the day.

dunno whether to laugh or cry....spot on.

 

[Pak_88]

Pakistan armyy establishment is abit elitist and it is said that they only allow their kids to go forward.

Could you please elaborate?

 

[django]

Fast food joints are only half the problem.

The other problem is consumerism. People themselves just don't know when to stop consuming all of the trash placed before them. It's because people haven't learned self restraint. And self restraint can only be learned through hardship which toughens the spirit. Consumer culture is bourgeois culture because it is born from excess, from sheltered lifestyle where the hardest thing one will ever do is deciding which coffee flavor to choose for the day.

So why stay fit? What's the need to even try? To join the military? But why risk your life fighting some dumb war in a far off country for a cause you're not even sure about when you can enjoy your video games, fish and chips and God knows what else the consumer society caters to your materialistic demands?

@Nilgiri @django @Psychic @jamahir @Metanoia

It seems selflessness is becoming a thing of the past in western society, no wonder they are on the decline and the dragon is on the rise.Kudos bhai

 

[waz]

I'm not surprised by this considering most young people are totally inactive and do very little in the way of exercise......

The report found nearly half of all 11-25 year olds in England fail to achieve the Chief Medical Officer’s recommended targets for physical activity2 –over 4.5m individuals. Overall, girls and young women are less active: 56% fail to meet recommended activity levels compared to 39% of boys and young men. The study highlights that the overall picture may be even worse: accelerometry data collected alongside self-reported activity levels suggests that self-reporting data overstates activity levels.

http://www.sportsthinktank.com/uplo...ngs-from-the-inactive-time-bomb-report-12.pdf

Ipads, fortnite etc.....

 

[James David]

Simple reason! Because the Redcoats drink lots of this!!

@Blue Marlin @mike2000 is back

8

Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir Nick Carter giving evidence to the House of Commons Defence Committee Credit: PA

• Izzy Lyons

4 December 2018 • 7:39pm

Half of the UK population are now so unhealthy they are unable to pass initial Army selection, the chief of defence staff has said.

Giving evidence to MPs at the Commons Defence Committee, General Sir Nick Carter said Army recruiters are facing “a very difficult market” in recruiting people healthy enough to enlist.

His comments come after the committee was told in October that the Army currently has 77,000 fully trained troops compared with a target of 82,500.

Gen Carter, who took up the post of chief of the defence staff six months ago, told the committee that “50 per cent of 17-35 year olds are not healthy enough to get through the selection process.”

He also admitted that the British Army shares a large part of the blame for its recruitment failings alongside outsourcing giant Capita and that some "appalling lessons" have been learned.

Capita were controversially awarded the contract for Army recruitment in 2012. In October this year, the Ministry of Defence disclosed that Capita managed to bring in fewer than one in 10 of the recruits needed for 2018-19 in the first quarter of the year.

Asked by Conservative former defence minister Mark Francois whether the recruitment and manning shortfalls are entirely the fault of Capita, Gen Carter said they are not.
View attachment 524638

"From its inception in 2012, there is no doubt that the Army shares a large part of the blame as well, and it has taken a while to get it back on track," Gen Carter told the committee.


"To be clear, Capita's bid when they competed for this contract was ambitious and I think it was overly ambitious and that would be their fault”, he added.

Gen Carter also conceded three or four "big errors" were made from the side of the military in the process, including making the contract too complicated and outsourcing the notion of a recruiting sergeant.

He said: "If someone is making a decision to join the Army, or for that matter the other two services (the RAF and Royal Navy), they need to see a role model in the process at the front door and that was outsourced.

"The second thing that was outsourced, which was definitely a mistake, was the ability to nurture candidates through the process from application to enlistment - and that was something that could not be handled by an anonymous call centre - which was the plan."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...unhealthy-unable-pass-initial-army-selection/

 

[Village life]

Health issue is one thing ,but a mixed society in UK is now also rapidly realising that Being in army and being pro USA means that one day they will end up in a war fought to prevent US intrests not their own,,

 

[Nilgiri]

Simple reason! Because the Redcoats drink lots of this!!

View attachment 527677

@Blue Marlin @mike2000 is back

Remember to stick your pinky out like a good redcoat sissy!

 

[Tshering22]

There is a lot more than fast food culture which has screwed up UK's recruitment. Too much social freedom without reasonable restrictions, lack of ambition and a sense of entitlement from the government has turned the youth of the country into ambition-less and physically unfit people.

UK basically needs to institutionalise a 1-year fully body calisthenics programme for all the recruits before getting them into combat training. Also, a mandatory reserve admission for all the people passing high school should actually do the trick.

 

[Cthulhu]

Good, Less soldiers for this Brit cunt to wage genocide on poor defenseless people.

 

[Tshering22]

Good, Less soldiers for this Brit cunt to wage genocide on poor defenseless people.

UK is no longer in any position to hold colonies or colonize countries which are resistant to outside rule. While they will continue to hold on to territories which want to be the part of the UK's overseas territorial network.

Don't worry; the era of military colonisation is long dead.

 

[313ghazi]

The issue is two fold.

1. No incentive to join the armed forces
2. A growing health and fitness crisis

First of all, why would anyone join the army? The pay is sh1t, you don't get any respect, the culture in the organisation is archaeic, it has a reputation for bullying, the pensions are poor, the risk to life high and most of the wars you fight are to snatch other peoples oil.

Secondly the UK has a problem with health and fitness. I'm not even 40 yet, but when I was at school there was a culture of after school fitness clubs, people played sports during breaks, people went to the park to play sports after school. Now this has changed, kids are entertained by on demand TV, video games. Parents don't let them out as much anymore because crime rates are up and more kids than ever are involved in drugs and face the risk of knife crime. Even during school breaks they'll sit on their phones using social media or playing games.

After school clubs have reduced due to funding cuts and crucially; there are next to no youth clubs anymore. They're practically extinct across the country. In the past kids could go to youth clubs, play in a supervised environment, be encouraged to do sports etc - now this is not the case.

Costs of out of school stuff has gone up too. I used to go to marital arts classes at £5 a session, it's double that nowadays, more if you consider some places have multiple sessions a week. Also the exposure of the peadophile scandals have left parents unwilling to leave their kids with adults they don't have to leave them with. People go on about Pakistani grooming gangs, but truth be told in recent years peadophillia has been exposed as rampant in large parts of British society. Private schools, care homes, the church - people are cautious.

Another part of it is diet. Particularly amongst the English than anyone else, people don't know how to cook. Supermarkets sell microwave meals or ready prepared meals and these people buy them and eat them. They're packed with fats and preservatives.

inner city this is made worse by fast food culture. As the economy shrinks people don't have enough spare money to buy big ticket items, such as electronics, new cars, things for the house, designer clothes, holidays - so they spend on smaller luxuries; namely food, alchohol, drugs. People buy fast food more often as a "treat" because they can't afford big things as treats. Then people get addicted to the high fat contents and the body craves those foods and slowly treats become a habit.

 

[Itachi]

I look at my weak *** cousins that were actually born in Glasgow. All they eat is chips and pizza and have body frame of malnourished bhartis. I tried offering them bakra karhai once and they were like how can you eat that? It has so many bones, we might injure our mouth.

I was like

Bunch of snowflakes. Thek kar unko bahi.

 

[KhalaiMakhlooq]

That's because we sold out joining the Army in favour of Call of Duty: Black Ops

Could you please elaborate?

There are three 'royal factions' in the Pakistan Military, each in competition to the others. If you have a connection to any of these you're pretty much guaranteed to enjoy good access to ranks.

There is no unified military order in Pakistan. And that has advantages. Behind the scenes this is a good protection measure for the armed forces. There are some high ranking officers belonging to one faction, others to others. There are orders within orders.

When the Americans tried to create a military treaty with Pakistan in the years after 911, they failed even after agreements, because competing factions overruled the other factions agreements, essentially creating a deadlock.