Young People 'Have No Understanding Of Military Life', MP Says

A "frightening" number of young people have no understanding of the armed forces, a Labour MP has said.

Madeleine Moon told the Commons that some of them "had no idea what NATO stood for".

The Bridgend MP, speaking during a debate on defence spending, said that it was "critical" for young people to engage with the army and "seek the life, the skills and the challenges" it offered.

She said: "I spoke to a young man who is a reservist. He was telling me that a lot of his time was spent out trying to recruit.

"He said one of the most frightening things was when talking to young people about joining the armed forces, was how many of our youngsters have no understanding of the military life, how many of those young people had no idea what NATO stood for.

"There is a wider problem that we as a country need to tackle and that is to get out a message about how invaluable our armed forces are and how critical it is that our young people seek the life, the experience, the skills, the challenge and the satisfaction of a military career."

Speaking earlier in the debate, Ms Moon raised concerns about the level of current funding, saying "the readiness of our forces is just not there".

She added: "I am deeply concerned. We have a reducing capability in our army, we have been sold a pup in a promise that the reserves were going to fill a gap in regulars. It is not happening.

"We need the minister to hear the concerns that we are expressing, none of us want our army to be damaged.

"We all know our personnel, when fully trained and fully committed, can be some of the best in the world.

"But we are getting weaker and it is unacceptable that we are getting weaker."