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Students ban the military
Nigel Rosser and Robert Mendick07.03.08
Students have voted to ban all military personnel including cadets from a leading London university, the Evening Standard can reveal.
The snub was delivered at a students' union meeting which condemned the "British military" for waging "an aggressive war overseas".
The union motion, passed on Wednesday night, prohibits the military from setting up recruitment stalls at freshers' fairs and severs all links between the Officer Training Corps and the students' union at University College London.
The decision will add further fuel to a growing row over the treatment of military personnel in Britain. It emerged today that servicemen and women at RAF Wittering in Cambridgeshire had been ordered not to wear their uniform in public after months of verbal attacks in nearby Peterborough.
Leading politicians today described the ban as deeply insulting and misguided. Gordon Brown today spoke of his outrage that British servicemen could be treated with so little respect. He said: "I condemn absolutely any members of the public who show abuse or discrimination to our armed forces."
The UCL motion, proposed by Sham Rajyaguru, stated: "This Union believes that because the British military under the Labour Government is currently engaged in an aggressive war overseas, for the Union to use its resources to encourage students to join the military or participate in military recruitment activities at this time would give political and material support to the war." The resolution was passed by around 80 to 50 votes.
Patrick Mercer, a former infantry commander and a Tory MP, said today: "These students are deeply misguided. They are insulting the men and women who fight for their freedom and the democratic rights of our society."
A spokesman for UCL Union accused a group of "hard core", Left-wing students of orchestrating the vote. "It's quite a silly thing," he admitted.
Up to half of British officers are recruited through university-based military organisations, such as the OTC.
The move at UCL follows similar motions passed recently by students at Goldsmiths and LSE, both part of the University of London.
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Reader views (29)
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I am one of these so called "small minded children" that voted in the UCLU AGM in favour of this motion. It was made crystal clear that the motion's purpose was not to condemn the British military or their personnel in any way whatsoever. Rather, we opposed their presence on the university campus for the purposes of recruiting UCL students into the armed forces at the present time and climate,; as it can be deemed that this would be providing support to illegal military activities overseas.
As far as I'm concerned the motion passed reflected the views of those students who actually cared enought to show up at the AGM, if certain groups of UCL students are in uproar against this motion then they simply should have turned up and voted against the motion. These same groups of students lobbied against this democratic decision which ultimately lead to the illegal suspension of our general secretary to which the union council have mandated a public apology for.
- Sajjad Abbas, London, UK
Once again a minority of students give a wonderful university a bad name. Myself and many other fellow students take this to be a grave insult to those who 'do their job'. They proudly serve wherever they are called to and I for one support them whole-heartedly!
- Ash,, London, England
As you say it is just a small group of stupid children who have nothing better to do and should be thankful that forces personnel actually chose to do the job to defend our country. Whether they think it is right or wrong they should actually be having a go at the government not the forces personnel. If it was not for these men and woman offering to do this job then the government would be forced to bring back national service. These small group of small minded children should be thankful that some else is doing the job so it does not have to be them. Have some respect. The armed forces respect the fact that you want to get a good education so respect the decisions they have made to serve their country. If we went to war would these kids not want the forces to protect us? I doubt it.
- Elaine Barlow, Middx
