Home Sweet Barracks

You've gotta be kidding me.

The Army has been accused of failing in its handling of new recruits and allowing bullying to go unreported, in a report by MPs.

The Commons Defence Select Committee suggested creating an independent complaints panel and looked at raising the minimum recruitment age to 18.

The inquiry was sparked by the deaths of four recruits at Deepcut barracks in Surrey between 1995 and 2002.

Their families said after the report they still wanted a public inquiry.

The report said: "In the past, insufficient weight has been given to the issue of bullying, which led to a tolerance of, or at least insufficient action being taken against, bullying."

And the money shot?

Jim Collinson - who lost his 17-year-old son James - said that, had they known what the training regime was like, they would not have let their son join up at such a young age.

In the lengthy report, the committee said the armed forces perceived victims of bullying as "weak", and needed a change in culture.

Counsellors should be available at training centres, as recruits were often "reluctant to discuss their concerns with the chain of command", it added.

How touchy-feely can the British Army get? I mean, seriously. If these folks were so prone to "bullying" then they should have washed out. The solution isn't to mollycoddle these recruits and "change [the] culture" of the British Army. The solution is to keep weak recruits from getting in in the first place.

Am I condoning this "bullying"? Of course not, and anyone responsible for the death of a recruit should be investigated and, if appropriate, prosecuted; but you don't maintain discipline and fighting spirit by turning your military into some touchy-feely kumbaya session. I mean, honestly. What a travesty.