Should we change the rules to let Poles join the British Army?

Should we change the rules to let Poles join the British Army?

dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=537509&in_page_id=1770

Army recruitment officials are calling for a review of the rules on
foreigners serving in the British forces after a surge of interest
from Poles.

"Currently, they can't join up unless they live here for a
few years and get a British passport - and it would need legislation
to change that.

Don't see why not.

Sorry Carol, I can't open the link.

NO MOST CERTAINLY NOT, the British army is for British nationals, that is how it should stay. We have our army every other nation has theirs. Were happy to help out when need be and i'm sure its the same for you guys. However there wouldn't be much point in making the UN, NATO if we can just join which ever army we like.

I'm not saying its a bad suggestion and to be honest i've been waiting for it to come up but i just can't see it making sense, why would you want to do that anyway, whats wong with the Polish army??? Wouldn't their be barriers, i mean when half of the soliders go on leave, you'll be flying them back to Poland!!! what happens with the language barrier, the only polish i could ever see joining the army are those who can speak good good english as we dam sure aint going to be sh*t hot at polish.

I'm not trying to shoot your idea down in flames i just personaly would not like to see it, not only am i against Poles joining the British army i'm against any other foreign nations doing the same. After all, no offence, its called the British Army :)

Gurkhas ?

I have to agree with the post above mine. I am neither a British citizen nor a Polish citizen, but even from over here in the United States, I see little sense in the proposal. Poland and the United Kingdom are traditional allies, yes, but so are the U.S. and Canada, and I don't think such a plan should be applied there either. Every nation has their own army. These young men should be satisfied by serving in the Polish Army.

I think that its inevitable that they can speak fluent English and are British citizens as well as Polish. Its the British army, and they need to be able to communicate, especially when they are at war zones. What a stupid idea to let people who dont speak English and are not British citizens join the British army?!?! Just because they cant find anyone British who wants to sign up...

I see ur point clearly Tornado. It would lay open a precedent that we may not wish to honour in the future. We have opened our doors by admitting foreign nationals into our domestic police force, but the army is a different kettle of fish entirely. However, in the collective spirit of 'Europeanisation', in the absence of a specially deployed European Defence Force (EDF), it may create the impetus necessary to move things along in that direction. If it were regulated correctly, with linguistic and various fitness tests, then it could become a reality but I don't think we need to go down that road too hastily.

i was waiting for that, yes the gurkhas were truly great soldiers and they served us very well and i'm proud whenever i see. hear about or meet a Gurkha, i can't believe we are not letting some of them live here, its outragous, thats another post though :)

If i'm right in thinking the Gurkhas were more of an extension rather than part of the British army and they were recruited in war time when we were loosing thousands and thousands of troops. Two points to make at this time are, we are at war yes, but we aren't taking anywehere near the casulties we were throughout the 1st and 2nd world wars.


exactly totally agree there, also what is the point of it being called 'British' we might as well call it EU army.


i do see your point, while you probably know i'm not the biggest fan of hoping straight into bed with the rest of europe, it is also about our sense of living and being British, surely if we all merge into one massive state everything is just going to overlap until one culture becomes dominant or we start fighting between ourselves over something stupid like religion!!

Theres an interesting debate here about it..

arrse.co.uk/cpgn2/Forums/viewtopic/t=92217.html

Favourite so far...

"Does a Kiwi who is serving in the British Army count as Polish?"

just the female population of the rest of Europe then? hopefully ha ha


i said to my bloke that i will get British citizenship and join the army, but he said i was too nice for that ha ha. its also scary how easy it is to get British citizenship. this Thai woman at work whos been over here about 4 years and is married to a British guy (from Thailand with love eh ha ha) passed the tests even though that when she speaks English nobody knows what she's going on about...

It's almost unworkable at one level to have a EDF. Too many wires would get crossed. The added negative factor would be that a bigger power presents a bigger target for attack. America, for one, would grow suspicious of an increasingly potent Europe and Russia would have to up the rhetoric and take action so as not to lag behind. The Euro is a threat to the dollar and further Europeanisation will only serve to antagonise the big two. So be it I hear you say.

I don't think Poles need to join the British army but we could benefit from their expertise, they are respected soldiers.

well i can't say i stick to just the UK ladies, so i guess i'm caught by the short and curly's there :)


lol, its true probably, although i don't know about your bloke but i'm seriously against women in the army or in fact any armed force, not because they can't do the job i can assure you of that, its for other reasons.


yeah i think having respect is the best way to go about it, we'll scratch your back if you scratch ours, we'll train some of your soldiers with our special forces lads if we can keep a couple of weapons on your land. That sort of thing :)

Exactly, the British SAS trained the Aussie equivalent to be the brave and feared soldiers they are today. God, I sound like a British prude already. Seriously tho, it's more manageable in the way u present it Tornado, cooperation without excessive regulation and binding commitments. Serving together increases understanding and needs to happen on a larger scale b4 changing the admission criteria.

Thanx, link works fine.

Interesting points -

Commonwealth troops make up 10% of forces. I am not sure that the commonwealth means much more than the EU to most people.

Nine out of ten people support the troops, only four in ten support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It didn't need a change in law in 1939 to 1945 when (for example) the majority of fighter pilots killed in the battle of Britain were Polish. I believe that we ought to accept gratefully into the military, any Pole who would want to serve.

Not unless they're British citizens. To serve a country where one is not a citizen can create all kinds of problems. ie what to do in the case of conscription, would any body be 'free for the taking'?

I say, steady on old boy.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-British_personnel_in_the_RAF_during_the_Battle_of_Britain

Good point free spirit, circumstances dictate responses and we can't pick and choose when we want foreigners into our army and out of it. The Poles did a sterling job in our Spitfires against the Luftwaffe and haven't received sufficient recognition in some circles. Like Tornado, I'd like to see closer cooperation between GROM and the SAS. This is the way to start a kick-*** relationship

while i thank the Polish for their bravery over the skies of Britain in that hard time, i would like to bring into question your remark about hte most men who died in the skies were polish, 3 out 4 men who served in bomber command and the RAF were killed druing the second world war, i'm not sure but i think the majority downed would have been a lot more brits than poles, 1 pole in a spitfire leveled against six Brits in a Lancaster.


as far as i know its fine for a British citizen to sign up for the army but i think they would have had to of been born here and not just resident for a few years


the reason that we let them join then is because the resources were stretched (on our part) and the Polish wanted to fight the Nazi's any way they could (There part) so the deal worked out good for both sides, we got

I really do appreciate the corrections to information I took from a television history programme. I believe the same info. is given in the credits of the film 'Battle of Britain'.

However, I'm pleased that the spirit of my comment seems to be acceptable.

of course it is and maybe my statistics include the 'whole' of bombe command fighters and bombers and mosquitos a like, where as the programme you watched may have focused on 'the battle of britain' and 'fighter pilots' in particular.

eveything constructive is taken well :)

I hadn't realised that my webcam was live.......;)

Hold on, I'll just switch mine on.......

• 
  Hellooooo.
  

How'd you manage to get your nose so purple?

could I guess at wiśnówka? :)

Moge....

wspaniałe, szkotja, bardzo fajna.

I think if we look closly at the differant countries in the USA military we would have to say , why is this a question?

Carol

Good point Carol,Im minded of a certain British gentleman who was one of the Hero's of the 1st air cav in the battles of the Ia Drang valley,a platoon leader,considered one of the best by Hal Moore. This chap,went on to become head of security for a certain company in a certain building in NY......untill a certain day in september a few years back when his employment ,along with 3000 others was terminated one sunny morning.

Why thank you Isthatu, long time no see, how r u? I must also add my loved ones that are in and have been in Iraq and Afghanastan have nothing but good to say about the Polish troops they have been with. Carol