manchester uni, hang your head in shame.

I think all they want is something to get upset about. If it's not Iraq, then it's women's rights, if it's not women's rights, it's tuition fees, or global warming, or GM foods, or Nestle, or gay rights, or tony blair, or gordon brown, or somethingorotherthatoneofthemheardonthenewsandgota littleupsetabout. This time, it's the military. I think it's just another excuse for a lot of them to have a day off uni and demonstrate about something they don't really have much of a clue about.

Most of them will attend this meeting and demonstrate against the military on campus, or just the military in general (I bet some of them will have even been up all night making banners) without really knowing what it is the military does. The fact that a significant portion MOD operations is humanitarian relief seems to pass them by, seen as most of what they hear comes directly from the Sun, or the Hippy Daily.

[yorkie_chris]

So who's up for some rolling burnouts?

[flymo]

Originally Posted by grh1904

Surely the students who object to the unjust wars would be better banning poloticians etc from the campus, and not the armed forces.

+1 - this is poor. They'll be banning people because of religious or political beliefs next. If prospective employers are allowed to recruit there then the armed forces should be included in that.

Students have always been more than a little suspicious of the military and rightly so...



There's a PJ O'Rourke quote along the lines of "the man at 20 who is not a Democrat has no soul, the man at 50 who is not a Republican has no brain" - it's not a quote I agree with, the author is self confessed staunch conservative, but it highlights the point quite well - as a student you're *supposed* to be left of centre and you're *supposed* to be up in arms (excuse the pun) about *something*.

Northwind has already made my main points more eloquently than I, so I'll just restate them - if you get your way all the time, then that isn't a democracy it's a dictatorship; protecting our freedoms also means protecting the freedom to limit the powers of those whom we task to protect our freedom.

[flymo]

Originally Posted by MiniMatt

I think the armed forces in the UK going about normal recruitment activities is a pretty long way away from the photo above and the reasons behind it.

The armed forces in this country are commited to operations based upon our international policies set by government, and based upon decisions that they may take on your behalf.

As mentioned earlier, this is just another example of students looking for something to rebel about. I would bet my house that some of those people will end up serving a rewarding career in those forces too.

[northwind]

[quote=neio79;1492662]
Its a joke as the recruiters at Uni will be after otential officers not as i am an other rank soldier. but again they are probably too dumb to realise this.
[/quote]

That wasn't the case at my uni, one of the reasons I'm a bit sympathetic to this idea... Well, not always. When they were at trade/graduate fairs that was true, but when they were just doing the general recruitment show they were specifically targetting uni dropouts or potential dropouts. A mate of mine, Sam (who is now navy btw) was deciding whether or not to resit a year and was actively encouraged not to by the army recruiters- "Why waste time doing more exams?" He joined as an officer trainee or whatever the name is, now he's on submarines I think, the army wanted him and others like him for rank and file though. That's pretty dubious...

Originally Posted by northwind

That wasn't the case at my uni, one of the reasons I'm a bit sympathetic to this idea... Well, not always. When they were at trade/graduate fairs that was true, but when they were just doing the general recruitment show they were specifically targetting uni dropouts or potential dropouts. A mate of mine, Sam (who is now navy btw) was deciding whether or not to resit a year and was actively encouraged not to by the army recruiters- "Why waste time doing more exams?" He joined as an officer trainee or whatever the name is, now he's on submarines I think, the army wanted him and others like him for rank and file though. That's pretty dubious...

The same thing has been happening is schools in deprived areas too.

Oh don't get me wrong, I wasn't directly comparing the two, just making the point that student protests are not exactly a new phenomonen.
Student protests in Tiananmen '89 : Good
Student protests in Tehran '99 : Good
Student protests in Mexico City '68 : Good
Student protests in Manchester '08 : Bad?

Students *should* be protesting about something, regardless of whether or not I believe in their cause I would be deeply concerned if students didn't protest about something, anything. Being a student is all about questioning the status quo, about seeing the world you've inherited and questioning why it should be so, about wanting to make it better. Whether their cause would, in your mind or mine, actually make the world better or not is completely irrelevant - it's the fact that it's being questioned that's the good thing.

Originally Posted by MiniMatt

Being a student is all about questioning the status quo, about seeing the world you've inherited and questioning why it should be so,

Oh, I thought it was about learning and gaining qualifications that would aid you in your choice of career.

Originally Posted by Lozzo

Oh, I thought it was about learning and gaining qualifications that would aid you in your choice of career.

Exactly, learning. Learning to think outside the box, learning to have "inquiring minds". That means learning what is already known and encouraging thinking beyond what is known. Otherwise all we'd ever know is all that was ever known before.