Cardiff Welsh Republicans

Not content with targetting Iraqis, Afghans and other people who didn't invite them to their countries, the British Army is now targetting poorer Welsh schools in a desperate attempt to boost recruitment. After last years  O levels, the Army Recruitment and Marketting office in Cardiff put a sign up "Failed your exams? Don't worry! We can help!"

Documents obtained by Plaid Cymru's Leanne Wood AM under the Freedom of Information Act show that the more deprived a school is, according to the government's own definition of deprivation, the more recruitment visits children will receive from the army.

Figures from the Headquarters of the Army Recruitment Division for 2005-6 show that the most deprived schools are visited almost fifty per cent more often than the less deprived. There are also stark regional variations: school children in Swansea were visited more than 10 times on average between January 2005 and May 2006, while those in the more affluent Vale of Glamorgan had none at all. Bastards LOL !!!

Leanne Wood AM, who wants the Education Minister to ban army recruitment in schools, commented: "The army is clearly targeting the most deprived areas in Wales because numbers of soldiers are down - 14,000 left in 2005. I believe that young people in Wales should not be subjected to armed forces propaganda. Pupils should make up their own minds with all the facts to hand. Joining the army could, after all, mean taking in part in a war illegally entered into which has so far claimed the lives of 126 British soldiers.

"I want the Education Minister to stop the army recruitment in schools."

The news follows latest figures which show a rise in army recruitment from Wales, which is on course to hit 1,000 recruits by April 2007, compared to the annual average 900 from Wales. Wales supplies a higher number of recruits in proportion to population, with around 5% of the UK's 16 to 24-year-olds, but providing nearly 9% of recruits from that age group.

Leanne Wood added: "I have had complaints from school pupils who believe it is wrong for the army to recruit in schools. They have pointed out to me that if an army recruitment event is organised in school time and on school premises, the impression is given that it is endorsed by the school. Schools should not endorse a career in the military by allowing them to recruit there." © Seren Blogg

• The British Army has had to step up recruitment tactics among schoolchildren with the "Dragon's Teeth" recruitment fairs across Wales, to which pupils are bussed in by schools. This MUST STOP!!!!

FE GODWN NI ETO! WE SHALL RISE AGAIN!