Recruits 'too soft' says forces chief

The Army is struggling to keep many young recruits

The "softness" of modern society is making it increasingly difficult to find good quality recruits for the services, says the new head of Britain's armed forces.

Sir Michael Boyce believes the country's young people are not being disciplined enough by teachers or at home, and this is part of the reason why they struggle during training.

They have been either socially deprived, are very unfit, or have been brought up with no sense of discipline at all

Michael Boyce

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, he blamed a society that had both "over-corrected" the tendency for physical disciplining and become too "indulgent".

He said: "One of the frustrating things is that you might have a very successful recruiting campaign and get 100 people at your gate and then you find that you lose 70 of them during training.

"They can't get themselves up to speed because they have been either socially deprived, are very unfit, or have been brought up with no sense of discipline at all."

'Clip round the ear'

He said that because of the way society had developed, people were "more fearful of shouting at people, telling them to do a job properly, clipping them round the ear from time to time".

Sir Michael: 'Society needs to get tougher'

The armed forces chief said that while it was not right for teachers to bully or maltreat children, the relaxation of discipline had gone "too far".

Recruitment was becoming more difficult and the army was struggling to hold on to existing soldiers, said Sir Michael.

A report last June showed that record numbers of soldiers were deserting from the British Army.

Statistics showed that in 1999 around one in every 48 soldiers either deserted or went absent without leave, compared with one in 55 four years earlier.

Navy man

Bullying within army ranks and pressures placed on soldiers and their families were some of the reasons given for the sharp rise.

Sir Michael, the former Chief of the Naval Staff, took up his post earlier this month, succeeding General Sir Charles Guthrie.

He became the first Royal Navy man in overall charge of Britain's armed forces for 12 years.

Prime Minister Tony Blair is known to have wide admiration for him as a man never afraid to be brutally frank with politicians.